The Latest: Trump to seek another $8.6 billion for wall
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump’s budget proposal for the 2020 budget. (all times local):
9 p.m.
President Donald Trump’s 2020 budget seeks a return to what the administration calls “fiscal sanity,” cutting spending while focusing federal funding on defense and the U.S.-Mexico border.
That’s according to the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, who says the budget will be released Monday.
Vought said in a statement Sunday night that the document will outline the administration’s key funding priorities. They include boosting defense spending and adding resources to the border, while cutting nondefense by $2.7 trillion. There’s a 10 percent increase in spending on veterans and money to fight the opioid drug crisis.
Budget documents largely serve as starting points for negotiations and Trump’s proposal sets up another possible confrontation with Congress.
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4:20 p.m.
President Donald Trump will be seeking $8.6 billion in his new budget to build the U.S.-Mexico border wall, setting up another showdown with lawmakers who have resisted giving him more money for his signature campaign promise.
The request would more than double the $8.1 billion that could be available to the president after he declared a national emergency at the border to circumvent Congress once lawmakers refused his funding demands. That standoff led to a 35-day partial government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history.
Two administration officials on Sunday confirmed that the request was part of Trump’s spending blueprint for the 2020 budget year that begins Oct. 1. That document sets the stage for negotiations ahead.
It also proposes boosting defense spending to $750 billion while reducing nondefense accounts by 5 percent, with cuts recommended to safety-net programs used by many Americans.
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10:13 a.m.
President Donald Trump’s top economist is brushing off concerns about rising budget deficits and slowing economic growth in advance of the release of the president’s 2020 budget.
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow says Trump’s budget “points a steady glide path” toward lower federal spending and federal borrowing as a share of the nation’s economy. The budget proposal will be released on Monday
Kudlow says “there’s no reason to obsess” about the budget deficit, even as it approaches $1 trillion, as long as it remains below 5 percent of the overall economy.
He says the budget will contain a proposed 5 percent across-the-board reduction in domestic spending.
Kudlow tells Fox News Sunday he’s confident that economic growth will top 3 percent in 2019 and beyond. Others have predicted lower growth.
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