The Independent View: Appropriators' Say Too late for Trump's Fiscal 2017 Cuts

Republican Leaders are shrugging off a last-minute White House request to slash $15 billion from fiscal 2017 spending Legislation due in six weeks to prevent a Government Shutdown.

Tucked within the fiscal year 2018 Budget proposal released Thursday, was an instruction from President Trump to Lawmakers to strip 3% of Discretionary spending in fiscal 2017 to pay for a proposed boost in Defense dollars, as well as about $2 billion for the initial stages of the President's Border Wall project.

A single page of Trump's Budget now threatens to derail Congress’ most recent Spending deal, which determines the amount of Federal Funding for both Defense and Domestic programs this Fiscal year. Ripping apart that deal would upend more than a year of negotiations on 11 Appropriations packages, stoking fears of a Shutdown come April 28th.

“It’s a little bit late,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), a Senior Member of both the House Budget and Appropriations Committees, said Friday. “$15 billion is a lot of money and certainly should be taken seriously — but in a $4 trillion, budget, really? Especially when you’re coming this late?”

Cole said the reductions would be possible if the Trump Administration were willing to “open up the entire budget, where we can look at mandatory spending as well.”

“But it’s extremely hard at this point,” he said, “particularly when it’s not specified.”

Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), another long-time Budget writer, also panned the White House’s request. “They’re almost done,” Rogers said about the Fiscal 2017 Appropriations measures, when asked whether it is feasible to slash this year’s Spending Baseline before April 28th.

House Appropriations Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) is not ruling out the Cuts. But a Panel spokesperson noted Friday that “OMB did not provide specific program reductions.”

Any major changes to the Appropriations Bills at this point, halfway through the Fiscal year, could destroy any prospects of Democratic cooperation.

“I want to make it very clear. If there are major changes, the deal is off,” Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the House Appropriations Committee’s top Democrat, told POLITICO on Thursday. “If there are sudden requests that were not presented to us before, those raise some very serious questions.”

At least eight Democratic votes are currently needed to pass Spending Legislation in the Senate. And Democratic resistance would likely sink any Spending Package GOP Leaders need clear by the end of April.

Many Congressional Democrats hope the latest House-passed Fiscal 2017 Defense Spending Bill will become the core of a much broader Government Funding package over the next month, avoiding a Government Shutdown or another stopgap Spending Bill that simply extends current levels.

The Trump Administration is wading into the Fiscal 2017 spending fight as it requests an additional $30 billion through a Defense Supplemental Appropriation, which CBO Director Mick Mulvaney has said he hopes will be tacked onto Appropriations Legislation for the current Fiscal year.

Officials close to Trump, including Vice President Mike Pence, have told Lawmakers they are seeking a “fiscally responsible” Supplemental, which would not add to the Deficit. And slashing Domestic spending is the only way to make that math work.

Out of the $30 billion Defense request, the White House proposes that $5 billion come from its Overseas Contingency Fund and $10 billion from raising Defense Spending Caps, which have been repeatedly reaffirmed as part of Congress' Spending deals.

The remaining $15 billion would come from Discretionary Spending, a tall order for many Subcommittees. That cutback would absorb much of the proposed $21 billion allotment for the Agriculture Department or the $32 billion set aside for Interior and Environment accounts.

Mulvaney told reporters this week the President’s plan for Fiscal 2017 Bills “follows the same sort of general outline” as his Fiscal 2018 proposal: “More spending on defense, more spending on border enforcement, some other line items, and also reductions elsewhere, and money for the wall.”

This is not the first time the Trump Administration has sought to make its mark on the Fiscal 2017 Spending Bills. Shortly after the Election, GOP leaders said the White House asked them to delay their Omnibus Spending package until the Spring. But until the Budget release Thursday, GOP Lawmakers said they had not received any of the Administration’s Fiscal 2017 Spending priorities.