No official announcement has been made but much of Washington is expecting that the Administration will release their proposed FY 2019 budget in the first week of February. That is required by law. But that budget will base program cuts and increases on what FY 2018 spending was set at, which has not yet been determined.
To be certain, the Administration will be able to project what mandatory and entitlement spending will be and base any entitlement cuts and eliminations on that but for the more than $1.1 trillion in appropriated funds, they will be guessing on cuts, increases and savings. It will add another level of complexity that almost makes certain that the FY 2019 budget will be like 2018—adopted through various CRs. It will also be based on spending caps that will no longer exits and are lower. With the government shutdown the budget could be even more awkward if there isn’t an agreement on a final FY 2018 in place.
The President is expected to announce an infrastructure package and that proposal will likely be front and center in both the State of the Union address and the budget. But again, the shutdown could make that message and speech even more odd and out of context.
The Administration is likely to resubmit proposals that were rejected last summer: Elimination of the Social Services Block Grant, elimination of the 21st Century Afterschool Learning Centers, elimination of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), elimination of the Community Services Block Grant (HHS), elimination of the Community Development Block Grant (Housing), cuts to Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) of $1.1 billion to the base grant of $16.5 billion and elimination of the $608 million contingency fund, cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP-food stamps), cuts to Medicaid by requiring states to take either a per capita cap or block grant, and cuts to TANF.
