With national attention focused on the presidential election and the high stakes of who will challenge President Donald Trump in November, Republican lawmakers have been tough in recent weeks on how to plan federal spending if their party regains control of the presidency and the Senate.
The spending process for fiscal year 2025, which begins in October, is currently underway, with congressional committees debating government funding and those discussions are likely to continue after the November election.
In keeping with their longstanding support for austerity for ordinary Americans, Republicans in the House and Senate are proposing deep cuts to a wide range of federal programs and agencies dealing with education, environmental protection, Social Security, election administration, national parks, nutrition assistance, antitrust enforcement, and global health, while also pursuing tax cuts for the wealthy that would further explode the deficit.
“Some of the most concerning policy provisions in the House FY 2025 budget proposal include mandating new oil and gas leasing, prohibiting the creation of critical conservation areas for wildlife and natural ecosystems, and restrictions that would impede federal agencies' ability to regulate polluters, putting our water quality, air quality and climate at risk,” the Surfriders Foundation said in a statement earlier this week.
“Two of the primary federal agencies that administer these programs are the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), but the House budget bill calls for a 20% cut to the EPA and a 12% cut to NOAA,” the group added.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, has sought to sound the alarm about the Republican proposals, warning that they would “destroy public education,” “endanger the health of women and children,” “undermine mental health programs,” “allow corporations to gorge on prices,” and “expose children to dangerous products.”
“I respectfully urge members of my party on the other side of the aisle to go back to the drawing board and submit a new list of actionable subcommittee allocations across all 12 bills so we can move forward with the important work of writing the 2025 budget,” DeLauro said during an amendment hearing last month.
But Republicans in Congress have made clear their intention to pursue deep cuts across the federal government, proposing spending levels far below the caps put in place in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, legislation that suspends the debt ceiling until Jan. 1, 2025.
“House Republicans now intend to fund their 2025 non-defense budget proposals at 6 percent below 2024 levels, rather than the 1 percent increase negotiated for 2023,” said David Reich, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
As the Senate prepares to hold amendment hearings on the spending bill next week, Senate Republicans are also pushing for damaging cuts to non-military spending.
In a recent statement, the Food Research and Action Center warned that a bill introduced by the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee would cut Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits by $30 billion over the next decade, jeopardizing vital food assistance to tens of millions of people at a time when hunger is on the rise.
A May report from Feeding America found that “the amount of extra money people facing hunger say they would need to spend to get enough food” has “reached its highest level in 20 years.”
The budget proposed by Republican lawmakers for next year is in line with the harsh cuts promoted by Project 2025, a sweeping, far-right initiative from which presumptive Republican presidential nominee Trump is trying to distance himself amid growing concerns about his vision for the country's future.
Project 2025's 922-page policy document calls for stricter work requirements for SNAP recipients, deep cuts to Medicaid, abolishing the Department of Education, eliminating key clean energy programs and gutting key Wall Street regulations.
“While Trump claims he has 'nothing to do' with Project 2025, officials from his administration and campaign have provided funding for the project.” InterceptShawn Musgrave of the White House wrote on Friday, “Former Trump administration officials wrote and edited much of the manifesto. One of its two lead editors, Paul Danz, who directs the Heritage Foundation's 2025 Presidential Transition Project, served in various roles during the Trump administration, including as the White House liaison to the Office of Personnel Management.”
“Rick Dearborn, who briefly served as President Trump's chief of staff, wrote the chapter on the White House,” Musgrave added. “Russ Vought, President Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote the chapter on the OMB and similar government agencies.”
