Politics
White House eyes reconciliation to get 2026 budget increase
The first-look at the White House’s fiscal 2026 budget request is a tale of have and have nots.
The departments of Defense and Homeland Security will see record discretionary requests when the Trump administration sends its full budget to Congress in the coming months. This version is commonly called the “skinny budget” request.
Meanwhile, civilian agencies are facing drastic budget cuts.
To get these increases, which would push DoD past the $1 trillion dollar budget mark, the White House is planning on taking a different tactic.
A senior Office of Management and Budget official told reporters today the administration plans on using reconciliation to get the DoD and other defense spending increases through. This means Congress will not need to get a 60 vote approval and instead a simple majority can pass the reconciliation bill.
The senior administration official said the reason for this approach is two-fold. First, the official said, too often defense increases are held hostage to the non-defense increases that the Democrats use. The official said this traditional requirement would hamper their efforts.
Second, the 60-vote requirement wouldn’t be needed, which makes the path easier to get the changes passed because the Republicans hold majorities in both houses of Congress.
DHS on tap to see $42B increase
The official said the administration put $150 billion of mandatory spending that’s now working its way through the House and the Senate. Of that, $119 billion is already reflected in the House bill for the Department of Defense and other national defense needs.
“In addition to the current discretionary levels that the Defense Department is operating, will get us to a trillion dollar level, and we believe it is more durable of a strategy and a paradigm shift than continuing to expect that we’re going to just send this up and not have the appropriations bogged down into either an omnibus bill that becomes something that no one wants to vote for, let alone sign, and or devolve into a continuing resolution, which is not good for the Department of Defense either. And that’s what they’re working under right now,” the official said.
The White House said it wants a $113 billion increase over 2025.
For DHS, the administration is requesting $107 billion in 2026, up from $65 billion this year — a $42.3 billion increase.
Overall, the administration is looking to increase national security spending next year by 13% and decrease non-defense discretionary spending by 7.6%, meaning the White House is asking for $1.7 trillion for the discretionary budget down from $1.83 trillion this year.
Source: White House 2026 budget request, May 2025.
Meanwhile, non-defense agencies should expect major cuts across the board.
The senior administration official said this is the lowest non-defense spending since 2017 — and, when adjusted for inflation, it’s the lowest since 2000. The White House wants non-defense spending of $557.4 billion, which is a 22% cut to the 2025 numbers.
For example, the Department of Health and Human Services would see a reduction of $33 billion, while others such as the departments of Justice, Labor and Treasury also would see potential cuts of 2% to 5% of their discretionary budgets.
GSA, OPM heading in opposite directions
The one outlier is the General Services Administration, which would see a $1.3 billion increase.
However, the Office of Personnel Management isn’t in the budget request for any appropriations. Emails to OMB seeking clarification and comments on the administration’s plan for OPM wasn’t returned.
The administration’s plan on using reconciliation to move the discretionary defense budget increases is facing some pushback from Capitol Hill.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, said in a statement, “Based on my initial review, however, I have serious objections to the proposed freeze in our defense funding given the security challenges we face and to the proposed funding cuts to — and in some cases elimination of — programs like the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), [Education Department’s] TRIO, and those that support biomedical research.”
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said he has concerns about the defense proposal because he believes it doesn’t really increase funding and is basically a cut because of inflation.
“The big, beautiful reconciliation bill was always meant to change fundamentally the direction of the Pentagon on programs like Golden Dome, border support, and unmanned capabilities — not to paper over OMB’s intent to shred to the bone our military capabilities and our support to service members,” Wicker said in a statement.
The administration official said they realize Congress will need some convincing or some educating on their approach.
But at the same time, the official said this reconciliation approach is the brainchild of some defense supporters like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).
“You can put anything you want to in a budget and say, ‘this is what we need.’ But that doesn’t mean that it’s aligned with a strategy that will actually lead to execution. We do think it’s paradigm shifting. We do think we have to explain it,” the official said. “One of the reasons we needed to get this budget out was because we’re in conversations with the Hill on specifically what that defense $150 billion over a number of years, but $119 billion in fiscal 2026 looks like. We will have disagreements with the Hill as it pertains to how you allocate that funding. We’re not looking at that as just ‘hey, this is $150 billion of just nice to have things that the Defense Department doesn’t think that they really need.’ What the American people are asking us to be very judicious with their taxpayer resources, 13% is a very, very healthy increase, and we want to make sure that it is going towards capabilities that DoD needs, says it wants and says are vital. We are changing the way that this place works, and we’re happy to continue to explain that to the Hill. I’m not surprised that we’ll have to do some work on that front.”
IT, workforce programs facing cuts
While the administration focused on many of its cuts on what they say are woke or diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives to “weaponize the government,” there were several interesting cuts to management, information technology and workforce programs across the government.
The Department of Veterans Affairs, which is in line to receive an overall increase of $5.4 billion to $134.6 billion, would see a $493 million dollar cut to its IT budget.
The administration wrote in the request, “VA has over 1,000 distinct IT systems, including many legacy systems, some of which are decades old. The President has directed the U.S. DOGE Service to work with agency heads to improve the quality and efficiency of government software and IT systems. The budget protects VA’s core mission systems that deliver healthcare, benefits and cemetery services to America’s veterans, while reducing spending on duplicative legacy systems and pausing procurement of new systems until VA and the U.S. DOGE Service team can conduct a full review.”
The IRS is facing a $2.48 billion cut and some of that would impact IT modernization.
The administration says “The elimination of certain complex tax credits and technology improvements would increase IRS efficiency. The reduction would protect functions in Taxpayer Services.”
Details about which technology improvements and how eliminating technology improvements would improve efficiency aren’t available.
Around workforce, the VA would see another reduction of about $37 million in its general administration account.
The administration says, “These targeted cuts eliminate DEI programing, reduce nonessential outreach activities and institute a reduction in force to cut bureaucratic overhead in line with the President’s Executive Order 14210, “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative.” The request states. “This level provides funding for the critical VA missions providing healthcare, benefits, and cemetery services for America’s veterans.”
NASA’s mission support office would see a cut of $1.1 billion.
The administration says, “The budget refocuses NASA on beating China back to the Moon and putting the first human on Mission Support. To achieve these objectives, it would streamline the workforce, IT services, NASA center operations, facility maintenance and construction and environmental compliance activities.”
And at the Education Department, its program administration account would be cut by $127 million.
The White House says, “As the department winds down its operations and reduces its workforce, the budget provides $293 million for program administration, a reduction of $127 million, or 30 percent.
Although this amount does reflect the considerably reduced need for staff, costs remain. Program administration funding is needed for personnel compensation and benefits for staff retained; fixed and variable costs in non-personnel categories; and costs from deferred resignations, voluntary retirements, and reductions in force.”
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