WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats controlling the House are proposing to cut back President Donald Trump's budget hikes for the Pentagon while significantly increasing spending on the domestic programs they favor.
Tuesday's move ramps up a battle with Trump and puts the Democratic House on a collision course with the GOP-held Senate as the two chambers consider separate paths forward on the 12 annual spending bills. Work on the legislation is sure to consume lawmakers for months.
Trump's budget promised a 5% defense budget increase to $750 billion next year, while cutting day-to-day operating budgets for domestic agencies by $62 billion, or 10%.
Trump's proposal is a nonstarter with Democrats and Republicans alike, but there's been no progress on forging a bipartisan agreement that would be required to stave off the return of automatic budget cuts known as sequestration.
The Democratic proposal is by Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth of Kentucky and powerful Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey of New York.
The plan would boost funding for nondefense agencies to $639 billion, up from $605 billion now, with $7.5 billion on top of that to cover costs for the U.S. Census.
Defense would get a boost from $716 billion now to $733 billion under the Democratic plan, cutting Trump's planned Pentagon increase of $34 billion in half.
Yarmuth failed in his efforts to develop a more traditional — but nonbinding — congressional budget plan that would put lawmakers on the record on tax increases, Medicare and agency spending. Divisions among Democrats proved too difficult to overcome and even the stripped-down plan released Tuesday exposed rifts between party liberals and more pragmatic lawmakers.
At issue is the roughly one-third of the federal budget called discretionary spending that Congress passes each year, which is comprised of Cabinet agency budgets. Larger "mandatory" programs like Medicare and Social Security mostly run on autopilot.
Yarmuth said the plan is "a responsible framework for the country that ensures we make the needed investments for American families, our economy and our security."
Republicans immediately blasted the measure, which — unlike prior spending agreements — doesn't include offsetting spending cuts elsewhere in the budget to limit its impact on the deficit.
"House Democrats are not focused on doing a budget, nor are they focused on addressing our nation's mountainous debt," said Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas, the top Republican on the Budget Committee. "This bill doesn't include offsets or bipartisan input."