Talks are starting on Capitol Hill to address statutory spending caps in place for fiscal years 2020 and 2021, CQ reported. Without an agreement between Congress and the administration, defense spending would be cut by 10 percent over the current fiscal year, and nondefense would be cut 9 percent.
Lawmakers hope to strike a fourth deal to raise the caps set by the Budget Control Act in 2011.
“In a rational world it should happen,” House Appropriations Committee Chair John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) said, adding that he has discussed it with his fellow Kentuckian, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R). “Mitch wants to make one and he wants a two-year deal. We’d like to have a two-year deal.”
But the Trump administration’s budget request, to be released the week of March 11, will adhere to the spending caps, especially on nondefense discretionary spending, CQ reported. It will, however, pad the overseas war account as a way to fund domestic defense expenditures.
The defense budget is expected to be around $750 billion, up from $716 in the current fiscal year.