The White House budget proposal contains a number of proposals previously rejected by Congress.

The White House budget proposal contains a number of proposals previously rejected by Congress. J.Scott Applewhite/AP

Trump’s Fiscal 2021 Budget Seeks to ‘Resize’ the Bureaucracy

Among other things, the White House wants to rein in “improper end-of-year spending” by agencies.

On Monday afternoon, President Trump sent Congress a $4.8 trillion budget request for fiscal 2021 that seeks to “resize” the federal government by eliminating what the administration views as duplicative and wasteful programs and focusing on core security priorities. 

The budget request includes a number of proposals Congress has previously rejected, such as significant cuts to the social safety net, foreign aid and environmental programs, as well as some federal workforce hiring and firing reforms and changes to federal retirement the administration has tried to implement previously with mixed success. 

Margaret Weichert, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters on Monday that the budget reflects “the core elements of the president’s management agenda” and is a “continuation of what we’ve attempted to do over the last couple of years around the workforce.” While the administration will continue to press for moving federal employees to a pay-for-performance system and employee training and reskilling, “not surprisingly, in year four of an administration there’s not a lot of net new ideas,” she said.

In budget documents, the administration maintains that over the last century the federal bureaucracy, with its two million civilian employees and millions more paid through contracts and grants, has “overrun [its] Constitutional guardrails”: 

“Taxpayers have repeatedly watched the Federal Government respond to any problem with the creation of new agencies, new programs, and new spending initiatives, instead of reorganizing, or repurposing what is already available within the vast bureaucracy. As a result, there are hundreds of programs in the Federal Government that have outlived their mission, duplicate efforts, or operate below peak efficiencies because of fragmented responsibilities between agencies.” 

Overall, the Trump administration would increase military spending by 0.3% (to $740.5 billion) and decrease non-defense spending by 5% (to $590 billion,), which is below the budget cap Congress and the White House agreed to last summer. 

Agencies where spending would grow under the president’s budget request include NASA (12%), the Veterans Affairs Department (13%), the National Nuclear Security Administration (19%) and the Homeland Security Department (3%). 

But the administration would offset those increases with steep cuts in other agencies. Foreign aid would be slashed by 21%, the Environmental Protection Agency by 26%, Housing and Urban Development by 15%, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by 9%, although the administration would preserve $4.3 billion to fight infectious diseases as the coronavirus raises fears of a global pandemic. The White House would cut the Commerce Department by 37%, but attributes the decline to the completion of the census. 

To reduce unnecessary spending across government the administration is proposing a number of specific things:

  • Doubling down on efforts to end improper payments. The administration claims this costs taxpayers $70 billion per year. While agencies have made progress in addressing payment errors, the administration wants to streamline reporting requirements to reduce the agencies’ burden, clarify compliance requirements, and improve access to data on payment accuracy, among other things. 
  • Augmenting oversight of agencies’ expenditures on travel, conferences, marketing, subscriptions, entertainment and refreshments to root out potentially wasteful spending. 
  • Continuing to implement category management acquisition practices to coordinate bulk purchases of common goods and services. This is essential to deliver  “more responsible, more agile, and efficient government,” according to Michael Wooten, the federal procurement policy administrator. The administration maintains that it has saved taxpayers $27 billion  through category management since 2017 by eliminating 31,000 duplicative contracts. It is on track to achieve $36 billion by the end of fiscal 2020, Wooten said. 
  • Curbing “last-minute improper spending” by agencies at the end of the fiscal year. The budget cited a report from the nonprofit watchdog Open The Books, which advocates for transparency in government spending, that found that 67 agencies spent $97 billion during the last month of fiscal 2018, which was up by 39% from fiscal 2015. The administration noted that "misaligned incentives in the budgeting process" are to blame, and said it would more closely scrutinize such outlays in the future.  

No president’s budget proposal survives Congress intact, and Trump’s will likely undergo major revisions. 

Rep. Nina Lowey, D-N.Y, chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee, said, “The president’s latest budget is a disastrous repeat of the misplaced priorities and callous cuts he has pursued unsuccessfully in past requests.” 

Meanwhile, Republicans lauded the administration's vision.“We've got to get serious about tackling government waste and this budget does that,” tweeted Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C. 

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.