A proposal
to axe $500 billion from mandatory spending programs in the Fiscal 2018
House budget resolution via reconciliation is gaining some support,
according to congressional contacts. However, the 10-year plan, not yet
final or official, is drawing strong opposition from some Republicans
outside the committee, such as Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway,
R-Texas, who asked for agriculture to be spared from the reconciliation
instructions, adding he does not know what the Budget Committee will
do.Combined with President Donald Trump’s Fiscal 2018 budget submission
next week and Senate action, putting the reconciliation instructions in a
House budget resolution would open the door for Republicans to pass the
cuts with a simple majority in the Senate.If the House and Senate adopt
a common budget resolution with reconciliation instructions to cut
spending, authorizing committees in both chambers then separately would
draw up a reconciliation bill capable of bypassing a filibuster in the
Senate.The full Trump budget submission on May 23 is expected to propose
about $800 billion in spending cuts to means-tested entitlement
programs and possibly additional cuts to other mandatory programs.The
budget resolution is already being written to include reconciliation
instructions to the Ways and Means Committee for a comprehensive tax
overhaul. The mandatory spending cuts would be added to that.Under the
plan, the budget resolution could contain reconciliation instructions to
a dozen or so authorizing committees directing them to draw up
legislation to cut mandatory spending programs under their jurisdiction
such as food stamps, agriculture subsidies, Medicaid and Medicare and
other programs. Lawmakers said the committee is considering reconciling
about $500 billion in mandatory cuts over 10 years.Conaway said
agriculture should not be a candidate for reductions. “We’ve been in
continuous conversation with them about what the current state of
affairs is with respect to the ‘14 Farm Bill and this budget baseline
and encouraged them to not do that,” Conaway said about talks with the
Budget Committee. He added that the Budget Committee has “some hard
decisions to make, and we’ll have to do whatever we decide once we get
that number,” he said, referring to a reconciliation instruction. But
Conaway argued that savings from the 2014 Farm Bill have been more than
four times the $23 billion that was estimated (most of those cuts came
via reduced food stamp spending, while some farm program safety net
spending was above initial forecasts). Conaway added that the outlook
for farmers has worsened, increasing the importance of a “vigorous,
meaningful safety net.”Conaway is also worried about deep cuts to
agriculture in the Trump budget. He said he planned to meet with White
House budget director Mick Mulvaney on Thursday to “pitch our case.”
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