FY 2019 Budget
By building on economic growth and addressing unsustainable government spending, this budget for fiscal year 2019 provides a responsible plan that will ensure A Brighter American Future.
Watch the markup live here:
Balances in Nine Years
Budget for a Brighter American Future achieves balance through responsible reforms and savings for government programs. The path mapped out in this budget reverses the current trend of growing deficits and debt that will ultimately result in a sovereign debt crisis, and yields surpluses by FY 2027.
By achieving $8.1 trillion in deficit reduction over ten years, this budget begins to slow down the unsustainable rate at which debt is growing to less than the American economy’s nominal rate of expansion. It does not make careless or sudden cuts to mandatory spending programs, but rather adopts thoughtful reforms to programs driving our debt and deficits. If the nation’s current situation remains unchanged, future generations will face unthinkable choices that could cripple our economy and adversely affect every American family.
Through reconciliation instructions for 11 House authorizing committees, this budget achieves at least $302 billion in mandatory savings over the ten-year window, showing a commitment to act now and forestall a debt crisis.
Consistent with levels signed into law in February 2018, this budget sets topline discretionary spending at $1.24 trillion.
- $647 billion for defense discretionary spending
- $597 billion for non-defense discretionary spending
Continues Economic Growth
Budget for a Brighter American Future builds on the success of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, further promoting economic growth and encouraging job creation. It reduces burdensome regulations currently holding back job creators.
Encourages Better Government and Greater Accountability
Budget for a Brighter American Future requires good stewardship by Executive Branch agencies of their budgets and encourages the more responsible use of taxpayer dollars. It promotes efficiency and effectiveness, prescribes reforms to sustain vital government programs, identifies and confronts wasteful spending, and strengthens accountability to generate better outcomes for Americans.
Empowers State and Local Governments
Budget for a Brighter American Future respects the constitutional powers granted to state and local governments by the Tenth Amendment. It acknowledges that some reforms are best decided by those distinct governing authorities in order to best serve the unique needs of their own citizens.
To promote more efficient use of taxpayer dollars, this budget seeks to scale back overreach of the federal government and restore power to the states in areas such as health care, welfare, environmental regulation, education, workforce development, and transportation.
Budget Documents
-
URL
-
PDF
-
PDF
-
PDF
-
PDF
-
PDF
-
URL
Frequently Asked Questions
- When does the House Republican budget balance?
This budget reaches balance within nine years and produces a $26 billion surplus in 2027 and a $142 billion surplus in 2028.
- How much does this budget reduce the deficit?
This budget achieves $8.1 trillion in total deficit reduction over 10 years.
Mandatory spending accounts for 70 percent of all federal spending, growing to nearly 80 percent by fiscal year 2028. It is simply not possible to address our deficits and debt without addressing their true drivers and reforming mandatory spending programs. This budget begins to slow down the unsustainable rate at which debt is growing to less than the American economy’s nominal rate of expansion. It does not make careless or sudden cuts to mandatory spending programs, but rather adopts thoughtful reforms to programs driving our debt and deficits. If the nation’s current situation remains unchanged, future generations will face unthinkable choices that could cripple our economy and adversely affect every American family.
- What reconciliation instructions does this budget include?
America’s debt continues to grow, and as such, this budget calls for increasing the deficit reduction target from the Committee’s fiscal year 2018 budget savings target by nearly $100 billion. In the spirit of fiscal responsibility, the Budget for a Brighter American Future contains reconciliation instructions for 11 authorizing committees to achieve at least $302 billion in deficit reduction and reforms – the largest amount of deficit reduction called for through reconciliation instructions in more than two decades, since when, mandatory spending growth has exploded thanks to new and growing programs.
Each committee that receives reconciliation instructions must produce and submit legislation to the Budget Committee achieving the net deficit reduction target. However, these instructions cannot dictate what policies to include to reach those savings. Reconciliation instructions only set savings targets for the instructed committees. It is up to the authorizing committees to decide which policies to include in the reconciliation bill to meet those targets. Social Security cannot be addressed through reconciliation.
- How does this budget address Medicare?
Under the premium support system, this budget envisions that the House Committee and Ways and Means would create a program in which Medicare beneficiaries would pick from a list of federally certified plans to best suit their needs. The program is not changed for seniors at or near retirement. The government would make a payment directly to the insurers to cover the cost of that plan. Coverage would be guaranteed, and traditional Medicare would always be available for those in the program and for future generations. It would operate in a manner similar to Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D – both popular with today’s seniors – and employer-sponsored-insurance, with which most people are familiar.
- How does this budget address Medicaid?
In addition to the Medicaid reforms from the American Health Care Act, this budget proposes that the House Committees on Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce enact a mandatory work requirement for able-bodied, non-elderly, non-pregnant adults without dependents who are enrolled in Medicaid, while exempting those who cannot work. It also proposes to stop giving Washington, D.C., preferential Medicaid treatment over the rest of the country by requiring the nation’s capital follow the same funding match rate structure as states. The Medicaid proposals in this budget put America’s most vulnerable first.
- This budget assumes a much higher economic growth rate than CBO’s economic forecast, generating large savings in the process. How do you justify this assumption?
Building on the successes of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the budget includes a number of pro-growth policies such as regulatory reform, welfare reform, increased domestic energy production, the Affordable Care Act’s repeal and replacement, and lower deficits and debt. The Committee believes these policies would generate average real GDP growth of 2.6 percent over the 10-year budget window. Although higher than the forecast from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) , it’s important to keep in mind that CBO’s forecast is based on the assumption of current law economic policies. In contrast, the Committee’s economic forecast assumes the enactment of all the pro-growth policies in the budget. While still well below the U.S.’s long-term average annual growth rate of just over 3 percent, the budget’s 2.6 percent growth assumption generates roughly $1.7 trillion in savings.
- What are the topline discretionary spending numbers for fiscal year 2019?
Consistent with levels signed into law in February 2018, this budget sets topline discretionary spending at $1.24 trillion.
- Defense discretionary: $647 billion
- Non-defense discretionary: $597 billion
- OCO/GWOT: $77 billion
- How does this budget address the needs of our veterans and the failures at the VA?
Veterans are a top priority in this budget, which calls for $86.8 billion in discretionary funding for veterans benefits and services for fiscal year 2019. This level is consistent with CBO’s most recent baseline.
However, despite large funding increases for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) over the past decade, the VA continues to fail in a number of key health care and management measures. It is clear that the VA has a management problem – not a money problem – and needs to be held accountable. This budget supports the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs’ continued oversight efforts to ensure the VA is accountable and transparent in its work and the nation’s veterans receive effective and efficient health care services and benefits.
- Is the claim of $745 billion in savings from reducing improper payments realistic?
Yes. Government-wide improper payments totaled roughly $140 billion in 2017, with a 10-year projected cost of $1.8 trillion. This budget supports the establishment of a special commission that would be charged with finding ways to tangibly reduce improper payments by 50 percent within the next five years. According to OMB Director Mulvaney as stated in a House Budget Committee hearing last year, a goal of reducing improper payments by 40 to 50 percent is the right target and should be attainable.
This timeframe recognizes that the problem is complex, and there is no silver-bullet solution that could be implemented overnight. Therefore, it is important that this commission methodically solicit input from experts within government, such as the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and the private sector to determine the best ways to tackle this problem.
- What changes does this budget make to the Social Security Disability Insurance program?
This budget strengthens the Social Security Disability Insurance program by putting an end to the “double-dipping” loophole that currently allows individuals to receive both unemployment insurance and disability insurance simultaneously.