The “Skinny Budget” is Likely Too Skinny for Congress

The President’s budget is always delivered to Congress with great fanfare, including live C-SPAN coverage of the actual budget documents being delivered by staff for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to the House and Senate.  That said, these documents are the President’s proposed budget, which means it is how the President would spend taxpayer funds if given the “power of the purse” in the Constitution.  Since that is the role of Congress, the President’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2026 will follow a similar path of many other proposed budgets sent to Congress…it will serve as a resource, but Congress will ultimately build their own spending, especially since Democrats would be needed to pass any spending bill (and they are not likely to follow the spending priorities of the President).

Nonetheless, the President’s proposed budget has significant value in providing a better understanding of the priorities of the White House for the coming year, which is critical for Congress and external stakeholders that rely on federal funding, federal programs, or both.

The FY 2026 proposed budget is expected to be sent to Congress shortly.  In the meantime, the White House sent a “skinny budget,” which simply outlines discretionary spending proposals, including where the White House suggests making cuts.  Here is a brief summary: 

Significant Non-Defense Discretionary Funding Cuts: The proposed budget includes $163 billion in spending cuts, representing a 23% cut. 

DoD and DHS are Big Winners: While most agencies are facing cuts (and significant cuts in many cases), the Department of Defense has a proposed increase of 13.4% and the Department of Homeland Security has a proposed increase of 64.9%.  DOT (5.8%) and the VA (4.1%) received small increases as well.    

State and EPA Face Enormous Cuts: The Department of State has a proposed cut of 83.7%, and the EPA has a proposed cut of 54.5%.  But they are not alone…HHS (26.2%), Interior (30.5%), Labor (34.9%), and Treasury (19%).

Agency Eliminations: The proposed budget includes the elimination of 16 small agencies, from AmeriCorps to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (and many in between).  Additionally, there are many program eliminations within agencies as well.   

Again, this is just a short summary of a proposed budget that will soon be released.  Congress – even Republicans – will have a difficult time getting support among members of the Appropriations Committees for the level of cuts outlined thus far.  Procedurally, implementing these cuts in spending bills would be near impossible, even if all Republicans were aligned, since Democrats would certainly block them in the Senate.