On May 23, the Trump administration released his full 2018 budget proposal, which details many of the changes the president wants to make to the federal government’s spending.
2017 FEDERAL BUDGET, RELEASED IN 2016
73%
Mandatory
Primarily Medicare, Social
Security and interest on
the debt
Discretionary
27%
Defense
This includes most of the operating budget for executive departments and agencies.
Everything
else
The proposed spending increase
would come out of non-defense discretionary programs.
SOME 2018 PROPOSED SPENDING INCREASES
Defense
$54B increase
Border wall
$2.6B increase
School choice
$1.4B increase
2017 FEDERAL BUDGET, RELEASED IN 2016
Discretionary
27%
Mandatory
73%
Everything
else
Defense
Primarily Medicare,
Social Security and
interest on the debt
SOME 2018 PROPOSED SPENDING INCREASES
The increases would come out of non-defense discretionary programs.
Border
wall
School
choice
This includes most of the operating budget for executive departments and agencies.
$1.4B
$2.6B
$54B
Defense spending increase
To pay for an increase in defense spending, a down payment on the border wall and school voucher programs, among other things, funding was cut from the discretionary budgets of other executive departments and agencies. The Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department and the Agriculture Department took the hardest hits.
-33%
State Dept.
Environmental
Protection Agency
-31%
-21%
Agriculture Dept.
-21%
Labor Dept.
Dept. of Health and
Human Services
-18%
-16%
Commerce Dept.
-14%
Education Dept.
Dept. of Housing and
Urban Development
-13%
-13%
Transportation Dept.
-12%
Interior Dept.
-6%
Energy Dept.
-5%
Small Business Admin.
-4%
Treasury Dept.
-4%
Justice Dept.
-1%
NASA
+6%
Dept. of Veterans Affairs
Dept. of Homeland
Security
+7%
+9%
Defense Dept.
-33%
State Department
-31%
Environmental Protection Agency
-21%
Agriculture Department
-21%
Labor Department
-18%
Department of Health and Human Services
-16%
Commerce Department
-14%
Education Department
-13%
Department of Housing and Urban Development
-13%
Transportation Department
-12%
Interior Department
-6%
Energy Department
-5%
Small Business Administration
-4%
Treasury Department
-4%
Justice Department
-1%
NASA
+6%
Department of Veterans Affairs
+7%
Department of Homeland Security
+9%
Defense Department
Discretionary spending limits, shown below, are set by congressional budget resolutions. Congress typically makes changes to the president’s proposal — last year, lawmakers disregarded Obama’s budget altogether.
Mandatory spending, by contrast, is set by other laws and is often determined by the size of the benefit and the eligible population. See how the budget changes that spending — primarily cuts to anti-poverty programs — in this graphic.
See how each agency’s discretionary funding would be affected by Trump’s proposal, in detail, below:
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Agriculture Department
The Trump administration is seeking to cut 21 percent of the Agriculture Department's discretionary spending budget, though it hasn't detailed what precisely will be cut. The vulnerable programs include rural development and research grants but exclude SNAP (food stamps) and crop subsidies. The USDA will also reduce staff by an unspecified amount at various service center agencies around the country.
Read full story: Trump seeks $4.7 billion in cuts to USDA discretionary spending
Eliminates the $200 million McGovern-Dole International Food for Education program
Eliminates the $500 million Water and Wastewater loan and grant program
Cuts Women, Infants and Children nutrition assistance from $6.4 billion to $6.2 billion
Unspecified staff reductions at USDA service center agencies around the country
Cuts $95 million from the Rural Business and Cooperative Service
Decreased $4.7B (-21% change)
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Commerce Department
As part of a 16 percent reduction to the Department of Commerce’s budget, the Trump administration is proposing sharp cuts to climate-change and ocean research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Read full story: Proposed budget for Commerce would cut funds for NOAA
Cuts $250 million from coastal research programs that ready communities for rising seas and worsening storms
Eliminates the popular $73 million Sea Grant program, which operates in conjunction with universities in 33 states
Eliminates the Economic Development Administration, which gives out grants in struggling communities
Cuts federal funding to the Manufacturing Extension Partnership
Decreased $1.4B (-16% change)
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Defense Department
Under the Trump administration budget, the Defense Department would get a 9 percent increase in discretionary funding — but only about 3 percent more than what it spent last year. President Trump has cast it as a historic increase in defense spending, but critics say it is actually more of an incremental boost and much smaller than what he promised on the campaign trail.
Read full story: White House touts defense budget growth plan despite criticism it isn’t enough
Increases the size of the Army and Marine Corps
Increases the number of ships in the Navy's fleet
Buys F-35 Joint Strike Fighters more rapidly
Increases spending to keep Air Force combat planes ready to fly
Increased $52.0B (+9% change)
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Education Department
The Education Department faces a 14 percent cut under the Trump administration budget, which would downsize or eliminate a raft of grants, including for teacher training, afterschool programs, and aid to low-income and minority college students. The cuts would be coupled with a historic investment — $1.4 billion — in charter schools, private schools and other school-choice initiatives.
Read full story: Trump seeks to slash Education Department but make big push for school choice
Cuts $3.7 billion in grants for teacher training, after-school and summer programs, and aid programs to first-generation and low-income students
"Significantly" reduces federal work-study aid to college students
Increases charter school funding by $168 million
Creates new private-school choice program with $250 million
Spends $1 billion to encourage districts to allow federal dollars meant for low-income students to follow those students to the public school of their choice
Decreased $9.2B (-14% change)
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Energy Department
The Trump budget proposal, which cuts the Energy Department's budget by 6 percent, would boost spending on managing the nation’s nuclear stockpile and revive the controversial Yucca Mountain storage facility for nuclear power plant waste. It would slash spending on a host of science and climate areas.
Read full story: Trump would increase Energy Department funds to manage nuclear stockpile
Cuts $900 million from the Office of Science
Eliminates the Energy Star, Weatherization Assistance Program, ARPA-E, Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program, and Title 17 loan guarantees
Gives the Yucca Mountain project $120 million to restart licensing operations
Decreased $1.7B (-6% change)
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Department of Health and Human Services
The Trump administration proposed an 18 percent decrease for HHS, one of the largest and most sprawling departments within the government. That sum excludes funding for the insurance provided by Medicare and Medicaid, two vast entitlement programs for older and lower-income Americans. In a rare move, those programs were omitted from the brief budget description the Trump administration has released.
Read full story: Federal health department would face a nearly 18 percent cut
Decreases funding for the National Institutes of Health and certain programs to train health professionals
Increases funding for efforts to prevent and treat opioid addictions
Decreased $15.1B (-18% change)
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National Institutes of Health (part of HHS)
The 18 percent cut would affect the billions of dollars NIH gives out to researchers around the globe, as well as studies at its sprawling Bethesda, Md., campus.
Read full story: NIH would see huge budget cut under president’s proposal
Eliminates the Fogarty International Center, which builds partnerships between U.S. and foreign health research institutions
Decreased $5.8B (-18% change)
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Department of Homeland Security
The proposal would increase funding to DHS by 7 percent. This money primarily goes toward big boosts in spending on border and immigration enforcement — for a border wall, for 500 new Border Patrol agents, and 1,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Read full story: Trump’s DHS budget includes billions to build his border wall
Cuts $667 million from grant programs to state and local agencies, including pre-disaster mitigation grants and counterterrorism funding
Raises the TSA Passenger Security Fee, currently $5.60 for a passenger flying out of a U.S. airport
Increased $2.8B (+7% change)
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Department of Housing and Urban Development
The 13 percent cut in funding for HUD will put tremendous strain on housing authorities across the country, which manage public housing and rely heavily on federal funding.
Read full story: Trump budget asks for $6 billion in HUD cuts, drops development grants
Eliminates the $3 billion Community Development Block Grant program
Eliminates the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, the Choice Neighborhoods program and the Self-help Homeownership Opportunity Program
Eliminates the $35 million of funding for Section 4 Community Development and Affordable Housing
Raises funding for lead-hazard reduction from $110 million to $130 million
Decreased $6.2B (-13% change)
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Interior Department
Under the Trump administration proposal, the Interior Department faces a 12 percent cut. That could strain everyday maintenance of national parks and historic sites, as well as enforcement of activity such as illegal wildlife trafficking at the nation's borders.
Read full story: Interior Department budget could be slashed by 12 percent
Eliminates funding for the 49 National Heritage Areas
Decreases funding for land acquisition by $120 million
Wildfire suppression funding is likely to see a marginal increase
Decreased $1.6B (-12% change)
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Justice Department
The budget proposal boosts the DOJ’s tough-on-crime and anti-immigration efforts — putting money toward targeting criminal organizations and drug traffickers, and hiring immigration judges, border enforcement prosecutors and additional deputy U.S. marshals. The DOJ budget’s overall 4 percent decrease appears to come from a reduction in federal prison construction because of a reduced prison population and reducing spending on mostly unnamed “outdated” programs.
Read full story: The DOJ’s $27.7 billion budget reflects Jeff Sessions’s priorities
Cuts funding to reimburse state and local governments for costs of incarcerating certain undocumented immigrants
Cuts almost $1 billion of funding for federal prison construction
Adds $249 million of funding for the FBI, largely aimed at counterterrorism, cyber threats, more timely firearms purchase background checks and more crime data
Adds $80 million to adjudicate immigrant removal proceedings and hire more attorneys
Decreased $1.1B (-4% change)
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Labor Department
The 21 percent proposed cut in the Labor Department reduces funding for job training programs that benefit seniors and disadvantaged youth. The proposal would also shift funding responsibility to states for certain job placement programs.
Read full story: Labor Dept. cuts target job training programs for seniors, disadvantaged youths
Eliminates the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which helps low-income seniors find work
Closes poor-performing centers for Job Corps, a job-training program for disadvantaged youth
Eliminates grants that help nonprofit groups and public agencies pay for safety and health training
Expands efforts to reduce improper payments made to people receiving unemployment benefits
Decreased $2.6B (-21% change)
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State Department, USAID and Treasury International Program
The 29 percent proposed cut to the State Department refocuses economic and development aid to countries of the greatest strategic importance to the U.S., and it shifts some foreign military aid from grants to loans. It also requires State and USAID to reorganize and consolidate.
Read full story: State Department’s 28 percent cuts hit foreign aid, U.N. and climate change
Eliminates climate-change prevention programs, including pledged payments to U.N. climate-change programs
Reduces funding for U.N. peacekeeping
Reduces funding for development banks such as the World Bank
Reduces most cultural-exchange programs, but keeps the Fulbright Program
Decreased $12.4B (-33% change)
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Transportation Department
The Transportation Department's budget would shrink by 13 percent. The spending plan would move what has been a core government function — air traffic control — outside of government hands, and push responsibility for many transit and other projects to localities.
Shifts air traffic control outside the government
Eliminates funding for many new transit projects and support for long-distance Amtrak trains
Eliminates $175 million in subsidies for commercial flights to rural airports
Cuts $499 million from the TIGER grant program, which has funded dozens of road, transit and other projects
Decreased $2.4B (-13% change)
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Treasury Department
The Treasury's budget would shrink by 4 percent, with other funds reallocated toward the department's security missions: preventing hacking, seizing terrorists' bank accounts and enforcing sanctions on foreign adversaries.
Reduces funding for the Internal Revenue Service by $239 million
Eliminates grants for Community Development Financial Institutions, which provide financial services in economically distressed neighborhoods
Decreased $0.5B (-4% change)
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Department of Veterans Affairs
VA would be one of the few departments to see its budget grow, by 6 percent to $78.9 billion. Most of the increase would improve veterans' access to doctors and support services following a scandal in 2014 over patient wait times. The money would also help fill some of the agency's more than 45,000 vacant medical positions. Veterans Choice, a program that gives patients the option to see private doctors outside the VA system, would also expand.
Read full story: Veterans Affairs budget is in line to grow by 6 percent
Adds $4.4 billion in new funding to expand health services and modernize VA's benefit claims system and other services
Increased $4.4B (+6% change)
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Environmental Protection Agency
Trump's budget begins to dismantle the EPA, shrinking its funding by 31 percent and eliminating a fifth of its workforce. More than 50 programs would be eliminated altogether, including Energy Star; grants that help states and cities fight air pollution; an office focused on environmental justice and cleanup efforts in the Chesapeake Bay and Great Lakes; and infrastructure assistance to Alaskan native villages and along the Mexican border. Funding for drinking water infrastructure would remain intact, but the agency's scientific research would suffer massive cuts.
Read full story: Trump’s budget takes a sledgehammer to the EPA
Eliminates more than 50 programs and 3,200 jobs
Discontinues funding for international climate-change programs
Cuts funding for the Office of Research and Development in half
Cuts funding for the Superfund cleanup program and the Office of Enforcement and Compliance
Prioritizes drinking water and wastewater infrastructure projects.
Decreased $2.5B (-31% change)
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NASA
NASA will see only a small cut — about 1 percent of its 2017 budget. But the cuts come almost entirely from Earth-observing and education programs, suggesting that Trump aims to make good on campaign promises to shift NASA's focus away from our planet. The budget also directs NASA to find ways to collaborate with the commercial space industry. It makes no mention of the Journey to Mars, which is likely to add to speculation that Trump wants to shift NASA's focus to the moon.
Read full story: NASA budget would cut Earth science and education
Cuts $102 million of funding from Earth science, terminating four missions aimed at understanding climate-change
Eliminates the $115 million Office of Education
Cuts $88 million from the Robotic Refueling Mission, which develops techniques to repair satellites
Decreased $0.1B (-1% change)
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Small Business Administration
The Trump administration is proposing to cut about 5 percent of the Small Business Administration’s budget. The new plan would eliminate $12 million worth of technical-assistance grants and other programs where the administration thinks the private sector already “provides efficient mechanisms” for small-business development and growth.
Read full story: SBA budget cuts target ‘redundant programs’
Eliminates PRIME technical-assistance grants, Growth Accelerators and Regional Innovation Clusters, saving about $12 million
Cuts $1 million of $46 million of loan guarantees currently available to small-business owners
Decreased $0.1B (-5% change)
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Arts and cultural agencies
The Trump administration's proposal cuts nearly all of the $971 million funding for four cultural agencies. The minimal amounts proposed for each agency will serve as operating costs to close out the agency by FY2019. Most of the funds support nonprofit groups across the country, such as dance companies, radio stations, orchestras and theaters.
Read full story: Trump wants to cut the NEA and NEH. This is the worst-case scenario for arts groups
Cuts $119 million of $148 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
Cuts $106 million of $148 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities
Cuts $207 million of $230 million for the Institute of Museum and Library Services
Cuts $415 million of $445 million for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports public television and radio, including PBS and NPR
Decreased $0.8B (-87% change)
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Trump’s defense spending increase isn’t extraordinary, but its impact could be
The president’s planned increase in defense spending is small in the context of the entire federal budget, but investments in the future economy — or the debt — could suffer.
