When President Trump’s fiscal year 2020 budget request hits Capitol Hill Monday, it will include a boost in defense spending and across-the-board cuts of about 5 percent to domestic spending, according to National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow.
“It’ll be a tough budget,” he said on Fox News Sunday.
The President is expected to request $750 billion in national security spending, almost all of that to DOD.
That is more than is allowed under mandatory budget caps. To reach that number, the administration will ask for an increase in the overseas contingency operations (OCO) account, which is exempt from caps.
That approach is already getting pushback on the Hill.
“No one seriously thinks that Congress would pass a defense bill with $174 billion of OCO,” Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said, according to Politico. “So, OK, you just kind of set that aside, and you get down to the serious discussions of what we can do to keep our readiness from sliding backwards, what we do to keep pressure on the terrorists, to deal with the Russia-China threat. That’s what the conversation will be.”
Lawmakers are working on a deal that would raise or eliminate the spending caps, similar to deals they’ve reached in the past.
 
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