WASHINGTON — Lawmakers began vetting the White House budget proposal for the next fiscal year Tuesday.
The proposal mirrors the Trump administration’s federal fiscal blueprint from last year in many ways — increasing spending on defense programs while dramatically cutting many domestic programs involving health care, the environment and more.
However, the president’s budget blueprint for fiscal year 2019 — unveiled just days after Congress passed a massive budget deal that raises spending limits for the next two years — is not likely to go far.
White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney took questions from the Senate Budget Committee about the proposal.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the ranking member on the committee, panned the administration’s spending proposal as a budget “of the Koch brothers” and “of the billionaire class” at a committee hearing.
The initiatives the administration proposed, Sanders charged, would result in children losing access to after-school programs, a reduction in the availability of affordable housing, and other cuts that would negatively impact Americans’ lives.
Sanders asked Mulvaney about the proposed elimination of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, noting that the program offers important help to households that struggle with heating costs in places with cold climates like Vermont.
Mulvaney said the administration has concerns about the integrity of the program. He told Sanders that 11,000 dead people were found to be LIHEAP recipients. The statistic is cited in a 2010 General Accounting Office report.
“That’s not moral,” Mulvaney said.
Sanders cut him off mid-sentence: “11,000 people got it who shouldn’t have, correct that, but 7 million people get the program,” he said.
Mulvaney argued that there are state-level programs that offer similar supports.
“Vermont and other states around the country … don’t have the resources to keep people warm when it gets 20 below zero,” Sanders said.
Many Republicans voiced support for aspects of the budget, several noting that they anticipated the tax package passed late last year will spur economic development.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said he appreciated that the White House proposal this year did not make a promise to balance the country’s budget over the course of a decade — a promise he said most proposals falsely make.
However, lawmakers across the aisle expressed frustration with how the budget process works in Congress and said they see a need to improve it.
Budget Committee Chair Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., called for bipartisan collaboration as lawmakers set about building the next fiscal package.
“It’s a tough road ahead, but I’m confident that we can find success together,” he said.
The White House proposal is not likely to make it far in Congress, in part because it does not align with the new spending blueprint lawmakers adopted last week. Mulvaney acknowledged the prospects for the proposal are dim in his comments to the committee
Like Sanders, the other members of Vermont’s delegation have raised objections to the priorities outlined in the Trump budget document.
Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said in an interview Tuesday that he believes the budget has “no chance” of passing Congress. He sees it simply as a political document that indicates the administration’s position.
“My main reaction to it is it’s cynical, and that’s what’s most disturbing to me,” he said.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, also bashed the proposal in a statement Monday. He called it “divorced from reality.”
Marcia Howard, of Federal Funds Information for States, said that administration’s fiscal 2019 proposal was very similar to the budget the Trump administration put forward last year, proposing to cut many grant programs and domestic spending initiatives that direct funding to states.
“Emphasis is on defense and security, and everything else is at risk,” she said.
The president’s budget proposal last year was “largely ignored,” she said. “Given the increase in the FY 2019 spending caps enacted last week, I suspect this year’s recommendations will also be greeted with skepticism,” she added.
The budget would slash spending on Medicare, which would see a cut of $554 billion, while Medicaid would be cut by $250 billion over the course of the next decade.
Some federal benefits would be substantially reformed, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.
Many other federally funded programs are also on the chopping block, including LIHEAP.
Vermont Human Services Secretary Al Gobeille said Tuesday that he has concerns about some proposals in the administration’s budget, including the changes to the benefits programs. He said the state agency is still reviewing the budget proposal to understand it in more detail.
However, he noted, there are some proposals he considers positive. The administration recommends testing an expansion of Medicare to cover medication assisted treatment — a treatment option for opioid addiction that is not currently covered by Medicare. Gobeille and Gov. Phil Scott made that recommendation to a congressional panel on a trip last week.
The administration suggests cutting the budgets of many domestic-focused departments, including those related to housing, labor and others.
The proposal would reduce the budget for the Environmental Protection Agency by a third from the 2017 level, according to the White House document.
Meanwhile, defense-focused budgets would see an up. The administration suggests increasing the Department of Homeland Security budget by 8 percent.
