The House Budget Committee is preparing to unveil a long-awaited budget resolution in a month’s time calling for a spending boost for the Pentagon alongside cuts to domestic programs, despite lingering disputes inside GOP conference.
House budget writers reached a tentative agreement today to relocate ahead using a resolution that might set spending levels at $511 billion for domestic programs and $621 billion for defense, two lawmakers confirmed. Compared to current law, that will add up to a $72 billion boost for defense including a $4 billion cut for domestic spending.
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The budget resolution would also instruct GOP committees to trim down $150 billion from mandatory programs more than a decade. Those cuts, without per this, could well be designed to target anti-poverty programs, like food stamps and disability insurance, reported by members.
“We’d want to margin in a few days, next Wednesday,” senior member Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said, acknowledging the committee continues to have “a few i’s to dot and t’s to cross.”
The mandatory spending cuts – which, unlike the rest of the budget proposal, would actually become law – are already very controversial waste the 2011 GOP budget. The cuts could be included as reconciliation instructions, alongside tax reform, which suggests the legislation could dodge the Senate’s filibuster.
Rep. Mark Sanford, who sits to the committee, said he was pushing right until the final for members to target much more spending cuts.
"Take into consideration how small $150 billion over 10 years is," he told reporters following the meeting. "To state that we’re doing robust are employed deficit reduction I would not think holds true."
The defense spending also comes in over the Trump administration’s proposal of $603 billion but fails to deliver with the $640 billion people your property Armed Services Committee demanded. Those lawmakers competitive the $640 billion spending levels during this morning’s House GOP conference meeting.
“It’s not everything the defense people want, yet it is certainly an important increase for them," Cole said. "A high level non-defense appropriator, you don’t like this cut, but it’s not an unreasonable cut."
House GOP leaders are yet to yet in the official approval, Cole added, though he stated he believes they will likely sign.
A spokesman to the House Budget Committee said nothing is finalized.
