President Trump unveiled the White House budget request for fiscal 2026 on Friday, a set of proposals that would make steep cuts to nondefense programs including in education, health care and foreign aid.
In a letter to Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought announced that the president’s budget would reduce base nondefense discretionary budget authority by 22.6 percent, cutting spending levels by $163 billion.
That would include a roughly $18 billion reduction for the National Institutes of Health compared to fiscal year 2025 levels. The budget also proposes a nearly $25 billion reduction for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, with State Rental Assistance Block Grants on the chopping block.
Vought said funding for homeland security, veterans, seniors, law enforcement and infrastructure would still be protected.
“This is a pretty historic effort to deal with the bureaucracy,” Vought told reporters on Friday. “You have heard and seen such action from our administration with DOGE, to be able to deal with the bureaucracy that we believe has grown over many years.”
Vought touted what he called a “historic” investment of $175 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security to implement Trump’s mass deportation and plans to secure the border.
On the defense side, the administration proposes to increase funding by 13 percent, bringing the total to just over $1 trillion. Vought also touted what he called a “historic” investment of $175 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security to implement Trump’s mass deportations and plans to secure the border.
Vought told reporters that the budget does not include the deficit targets or revenue assumptions, which will come “at a later date” while Congress works through reconciliation.
The proposal is Trump’s first budget of his second term, which eclipsed its 100th day earlier this week.
Presidential budget requests are generally considered a White House wish list, with congressional appropriators crafting the appropriations bills that become law. But the proposal is a window into the Trump administration’s priorities at a time when he holds enormous sway over the Republican Party that controls both chambers of Congress.
Updated at 11:13 a.m.
