7 Things To Know About President Trump's Stark Budget Proposal

The White House has proposed a remarkably trimmed-down budget blueprint for the federal government, which includes massive cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department and a wide swath of other departments and programs run by the executive branch.

Defense spending, by contrast, is set to rise under the budget while the Department of Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs will both gain additional funding under the proposal. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch for daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

But the new 2018 budget proposal is not law, and it's a long way from it. It only addresses discretionary spending, which is the smallest part of the federal budget; Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are not touched by this proposal. Whatever eventually passes Congress will likely look very different.

Nevertheless, the document gives us deep insight into the administration's priorities. Here are the programs that are affected:

1. Department of Veterans Affairs

Under the proposed blueprint, the administration would boost spending on the Department of Veterans Affairs by 6 percent. The department's discretionary health care budget will rise $4.6 billion "to improve patient access and timeliness of medical care services for over nine million enrolled veterans."

During his campaign, Trump often brought up the care of veterans as a central priority.

2. Scientific research and the arts

If you do scientific research or artistic work with federal government funding, the Trump administration thinks you should be looking elsewhere. The National Institutes of Health stands to have its medical research budget cut by 18 percent under the new proposal, amounting to a $6 billion drop, while the Energy Department's Office of Science would lose $900 million and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would lose $250 million.

Meanwhile, the budget cuts all funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The CPR provides funding for NPR, PBS and more than 1,000 affiliated stations and has long been a target of Republican ire.

3. Services for the poor

The blueprint proposes completely eliminating the Community Development and Block Grant Program. While this program is not particularly well known, this $3 billion cut would hit Meals on Wheels and many smaller-scale revitalization projects that build community centers, libraries and infrastructure improvements in needy areas.

CDBG Program Elimination Would Have Devastating Ripple Effects, Ocean County Group Says

The Legal Services Corporation, which helps poor people fight civil legal battles, and the HOME Investment Partnerships Program, which helps provide affordable housing, also get the ax under the proposal.

4. Defense Department and Homeland Security

While most agencies face cuts under the proposal, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense get funding boosts. DOD will receive $639 billion under the proposal, a $52 billion increase.

Homeland Security spending would rise almost 7 percent if the administration had its way to a total of $44.1 billion. This ostensibly helps fund Trump's promised border wall, though the increase only covers a small fraction of the project's likely cost and is also meant to cover increases in staffing and other program expansions.

5. The EPA

The White House's budget cuts $2.6 billion from the EPA, which amounts to a 31 percent reduction in funds. These cuts target many of the Obama administration's efforts to fight climate change, as the blueprint "discontinues funding for the Clean Power Plan, international climate change programs, climate change research and partnership programs, and related efforts."

In total, the cuts would eliminate more than 50 of the agency's programs, according to the budget document.

6. The State Department

As the proposal prioritizes military spending, it reduces funding to diplomatic efforts by cutting the State Department's budget by 28 percent, from $35.7 billion to $25.6 billion.

These cuts, which have been rumored for awhile, seem to fly in the face of Defense Secretary James Mattis' views. He told Congress in 2013 that State Department spending reduces the need to rely on the military.

"If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately," he said. "So I think it’s a cost benefit ratio. The more that we put into the State Department’s diplomacy, hopefully the less we have to put into a military budget as we deal with the outcome of an apparent American withdrawal from the international scene."

7. HIV/AIDS spending

Though the budget rolls back spending on medical research, it reaffirms the government's efforts to fighting the spread of HIV and AIDS. It preserves funding for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program and calls it one of the Department of Health and Human Services' "highest priorities." This program provides health care for people with HIV who are uninsured.

The budget also continues current levels of support for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a program that fights the spread and effects of HIV in Africa, providing anti-retroviral treatments for millions of patients. PEPFAR, which began under President George W. Bush, is widely regarded as exceptionally successful in the world of global health.

Read the full budget blueprint>>

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Photo credit: Budget Screenshot