President Donald Trump is proposing immediate budget cuts of USD 18 billion from programs like medical research, infrastructure and community grants so US taxpayers, not Mexico, can cover the down payment on the border wall.
The White House documents were submitted to Congress amid negotiations over a catchall spending bill that would avert a partial government shutdown at the end of next month.
The package would wrap up USD 1.1 trillion in unfinished spending bills and address the Trump administration's request for an immediate USD 30 billion in additional Pentagon spending.
The latest Trump proposal, disclosed today, would eliminate USD 1.2 billion in National Institutes of Health research grants, a favorite of both parties.
The community development block grant program, also popular, would be halved, amounting to a cut of USD 1.5 billion, and Trump would strip USD 500 million from a transportation project known as TIGER grants.
Like Trump's 2018 proposed budget, which was panned by both Democrats and Republicans earlier this month, the proposals have little chance of being enacted.
But they could create bad political optics for the struggling Trump White House, since the administration asked earlier for USD 3 billion to pay for the Trump's controversial US-Mexico border wall and other immigration enforcement plans. During the campaign, Trump repeatedly promised Mexico would pay for the wall, a claim the country has disputed.
"The administration is asking the American taxpayer to cover the cost of a wall -- unneeded, ineffective, absurdly expensive -- that Mexico was supposed to pay for, and he is cutting programs vital to the middle class to get that done," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "Build the wall or repair or build a bridge or tunnel or road in your community? What's the choice?"
The roster of cuts were sent to Capitol Hill as a set of options for GOP staff aides and lawmakers crafting a catchall spending bill for the ongoing budget year, which ends September 30.
Those talks are intensifying, but Senate Republicans are considering backing away from a showdown with Democrats over whether to fund Trump's request for immediate funding to build a wall along the US-Mexico border. Senate Democrats have threatened to filibuster any provision providing money for the wall.
Asked about including Southern border wall financing in the broader spending package, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., a key negotiator, said, "They will not pass together. That's just my view."
Blunt added, "My view is there's a path to get 60 votes" in the Senate, the total required to overcome a Democratic filibuster.
Blunt is a member of the Senate GOP leadership team and a major player on health and human services accounts.
The government would shut down except for some functions at midnight April 28 without successful action on spending.
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