Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell offered praise for President Trump’s big boosts in spending to defense and veterans programs included in new budget details released Thursday, but he did not comment on the deep budget cuts to the State Department and other domestic funding.
The Kentucky Republican, in a brief statement Thursday, said he is “pleased to see an increased focus on our national security and veterans budgets” in Trump’s “America First” budget.
“These are positive steps in the right direction,” he said. “I look forward to reviewing this and the full budget when it is released later this spring.”
McConnell late last month poured cold water on Trump’s plans to cut funding for maintaining the United States’ diplomatic corps and for fighting poverty, promoting human rights and improving health for people overseas.
He said dramatic cuts to State Department funding “probably” wouldn’t pass the Senate and is something he would personally oppose.
“I, for one, just speaking for myself, think the diplomatic portion of the federal budget” is a positive tool for U.S. foreign policy, McConnell told reporters Feb. 28. He said spending money on diplomacy is often cheaper and more effective than what “we do on the defense side.”
Trump’s full, detailed budget, which will be released later this Spring, lays out his wish list of spending priorities but lacks the power of enforcement. Only Congress has the power to determine government spending levels and which agencies budget will be increased or decreased.
