President Trump on Monday proposed a fiscal year 2020 budget plan that would boost federal funding for a handful of favored agencies, but cut most others in a bid to slow the rate of growth of the federal government.
Trump proposed increases for the Departments of Commerce (up 9.3 percent), Defense (up 5 percent), Homeland Security (up 7.8 percent), and Veterans Affairs (up 7.5 percent), as well as NASA and the Small Business Administration.
Others see much more dramatic cuts, according to the budget the House Democrats have already said will go no where in the House. Here are the departments that would see the most significant cuts under Trump’s plan:
Environmental Protection Agency, 31 percent decrease
The budget talks about eliminating “many voluntary and lower-priority activities and refocus the agency on strategic and regulatory reforms.”
Department of State, 23 percent cut
The proposal talks about the need for “burden sharing” with other countries on global humanitarian efforts, and in multinational organizations.
Department of Transportation, 22 percent cut
The budget plan says the federal government “is not — and should not be — the primary funder of the Nation’s transportation systems.” It also stressed the need for making investments in transportation that “generate large returns on investment.”
Department of Housing and Urban Development, 16.4 percent cut
Eliminates the Community Development Block Grant program, and would leave it up to states and localities to address community development, and requires people to work if they can to help pay back their rental assistance benefits.
Department of Agriculture, 15 percent cut
The budget focuses on cutting “waste,” and the biggest savings is a reduction of crop insurance premium subsidies. It specifically talks about “eliminating subsidies to higher income farmers, and reducing overly generous crop insurance premium subsidies to farmers and payments made to private sector insurance companies.”
Department of the Interior, 14 percent cut
Eliminates the Abandoned Mine Land economic grants, which are discretionary, and cuts funding for land acquisition.
Department of Health and Human Services, 12 percent cut
Among other things, the budget proposes accounting for the discounts people get when calculating pharmaceutical coverage gaps, and proposes ways to cut back on over-payments to some providers.
Department of Energy, 11 percent cut
A big chunk of the savings comes from a plan to divest from federally owned and operated power transmission assets.
Department of Education, 10 percent cut
The biggest proposed change here is a move to an “income-driven student loan repayment plan,” which the White House says would save more than $100 billion over a decade. The plan foresees having all borrowers paying an “equitable share of their income” in order to cut subsidized loans.
Department of Labor, 9.7 percent cut
The budget cites a change to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which insures millions of Americans’ pensions, by boosting premiums.
