Shared from the 3/11/2019 Houston Chronicle eEdition

Trump to demand $8.6B in wall funding

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Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg

President Donald Trump’s 2020 budget request, which is set to be released Monday, is seeking severe cuts to agencies like the Education Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Budget breakdown

$8.6 billion to build more sections of a wall along the Mexico border.

$2.7 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years for a range of programs, including welfare assistance, environmental protection and foreign aid.

$750 billion in military spending for next year, an increase from $716 billion.

12 percent cut at the Education Department.

12 percent cut at the Department of Health and Human Services.

11 percent cut at the Interior Department.

23 percent cut at the State Department.

32 percent cut at the Environmental Protection Agency.

22 percent cut at the Transportation Department.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday will request at least another $8.6 billion in funding to build more sections of a wall along the Mexico border, setting up a fresh battle with Congress less than one month after Trump declared a national emergency.

In Trump’s annual budget request to Congress, he will request $5 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security to continue building sections of a wall along the Mexico border, three people briefed on the request said. He will request another $3.6 billion for the Defense Department’s military construction budget to erect more sections of a wall.

The people describing the request spoke on the condition of anonymity because the budget had not been made public, but a top White House official acknowledged the request in an interview on Fox News Sunday. Reuters first reported the $8.6 billion figure.

Asked if Trump’s new border funding request signals that a new budget fight is coming, Larry Kudlow, the White House’s top economic adviser, responded, “I suppose there will be. I would just say that the whole issue of the wall, of border security, is of paramount importance. We have a crisis down there. I think the president has made that case very effectively.”

Top Democrats reacted swiftly to reports that Trump was seeking more money for the wall, reflecting how they are girding for the fight and believe that public sentiment is on their side.

Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said the request was “not even worth the paper it’s written on.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., added that Trump caused a government shutdown in December because he defied Congress and demanded a wall. They said lawmakers were prepared to block his demand this time as well.

“The same thing will repeat itself if he tries this again,” they said in a joint statement. “We hope he learned his lesson.”

Major budget cuts

The request will come as part of a broader proposal that would call for cutting $2.7 trillion in spending over 10 years for a range of programs, including welfare assistance, environmental protection and foreign aid. At the same time, Trump will seek to dramatically boost the military’s budget from $716 billion to $750 billion next year.

The contrast is meant to bring into sharper focus the White House’s priorities heading into budget negotiations this summer, even if many lawmakers have already declared the proposals dead on arrival. The wall demands will attract a particular focus, because Trump has shown it to be the one area he will amplify into a political brawl.

The $8.6 billion request would represent less than 0.5 percent of the broader White House budget, which will eclipse $4 trillion. The budget request would, among other things, propose cutting $1.1 trillion from Medicaid and other health-care programs over the next decade by turning over more control to states, according to a summary reviewed by The Washington Post.

Medicaid is a health care program for low-income and disabled Americans, run jointly by states and the federal government. Some Republicans and the White House have repeatedly proposed slashing its benefits, alleging it is wasteful, while many Democrats and a number of Republicans have fought back and sought to expand the program as a way to provide more benefits for the poor.

Congressional approval

The White House’s new budget plan also would cut another $327 billion from arange of other welfare programs, including those that provide food and housing assistance, in part by imposing mandatory work requirements for certain recipients. It would cut another $207 billion by making changes to student loan programs over 10 years and an additional $200 billion by changing federal retirement programs and making major changes to the U.S. Postal Service.

The budget would call for severe reductions at a number of federal agencies. It will propose a 12 percent cut at the Education Department, a12 percent cut at the Department of Health and Human Services, an 11 percent cut at the Interior Department, a 23 percent cut at the State Department, a 32 percent cut at the Environmental Protection Agency and a 22 percent cut at the Transportation Department, according to the summary.

Almost all of the proposals would require congressional approval, and lawmakers have dismissed cuts of similar size in Trump’s past budgets.

Even with the proposed cuts, the White House proposal would not eliminate the budget deficit until the mid-2030s. This is in part because Trump has instructed aides not to pursue any structural changes to Medicare, the health-care program for millions of older Americans.

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