Here’s what Trump’s budget proposal cuts by agency

The Agriculture Department, which oversees various farm, ranching and forestry industries, regulates food safety and nutrition labeling and manages welfare programs such as free school lunches and food stamps, would see cuts of around 18 percent.

The cuts target projects deemed wasteful or ineffective; those that the administration says push “woke programming” related to climate change or diversity, equity and inclusion, and several forest management and conservation programs, in favor of boosting timber production. The budget also calls for small increases in funding for the Food Safety Inspection Service and rental assistance grants.

Key proposed changes

• Cut $721 million in funding for rural development programs, including eliminating rural business programs, single family housing direct loans, self-help housing grants, telecommunications loans and rural housing vouchers. The administration says some of the programs are unpopular, too costly to deliver or available through the private sector.
• Cuts to forest management, research and conservation programs, citing oversight issues and alignment with President Donald Trump’s March executive order to boost timber production.
• Eliminate the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which funds food for low-income seniors. It would be replaced with “MAHA food boxes,” referring to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s slogan to “make America healthy again.”
• Eliminate the McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program, which buys U.S. agricultural products and donates them as foreign aid. The administration says it is “neither necessary or efficient as support for U.S. farmers.”

The department, which oversees a broad array of federal policies on business and economic development including promoting trade, conducting scientific research and managing industrial standards, would see its budget cut by half under the White House proposal.

The administration’s budget calls for cutting more than $1.5 billion for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and strips funding from other agencies for projects that push a “radical climate agenda” and “discriminatory DEI practices.”

Key proposed changes

• Terminate $1.3 billion in National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research and grant programs that are “climate-dominated,” including educational programs and funding for environmental nonprofits like the Ocean Conservancy. It also cuts $200 million for the procurement of weather satellites and infrastructure.
• Eliminate the Minority Business Development Agency for inserting “equity” into its programs and cuts around $1 billion of combined funding for that agency, the Economic Development Administration, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and International Trade Administration.
• Add $134 million for “fair trade and trade enforcement,” the only increase in the budget from 2025. The majority of the increase is allocated for the Bureau of Industry and Security, which regulates the export of sensitive goods for national security purposes. Money will also be used to “address supply chain and sourcing risks” and boost America’s industrial and manufacturing base.

The Trump administration is promising to increase defense spending in line with its national security goals of more effectively competing with China and reinvesting in America’s defense manufacturing might, but its proposal fell far short of what Republican Hawks have demanded.

Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Alabama), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he was concerned the budget “does not reflect a realistic path to building the military capability we need to achieve President Trump’s Peace Through Strength agenda.” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) said the United States “cannot expect our allies to heed calls for greater annual defense spending if we are unwilling to lead by example.”

Key proposed changes

• Increase top-line Defense Department funds by $113 billion, which officials said would bring spending to roughly $1 trillion. But critics accused the administration of using “accounting gimmicks” and said the plan would not actually increase spending without counting another budget proposal now under consideration by Congress.
• Cut environmental, scientific and green energy spending within the Defense Department.

The proposed budget would slash funding from programs that support K-12 schools and colleges; seeks to codify cuts the administration has made unilaterally; and defunds programs it views as supporting diversity, equity and inclusion. The proposal takes aim at many of the same higher education programs President Donald Trump tried to starve or end in his first term, including one that funds child care on campuses and others that prepare low-income students for college.

Key proposed changes

• Slash $4.5 billion from grant programs that aid public schools and consolidates what’s left into a $2 billion program with few strings attached.
• Reduce the federal work-study program, which helps students work their way through college, by about 80 percent.
• Cut funding for the Office for Civil Rights, which investigates claims of race, sex and other discrimination in schools, by a third.
• Preserve current funding levels for programs that aid high-poverty schools and students with disabilities and an increase for a program that aids charter schools.

The administration is proposing to gut billions of dollars in incentives and subsidies for clean energy programs aimed at speeding the transition from fossil fuels. The cuts take aim at electric vehicles, carbon dioxide removal technologies and grants to develop new clean energy innovations.

Key proposed changes

• Terminate all spending under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a signature Biden-era initiative to speed the energy transition. The $15.2 billion cut would cancel the $7,500 subsidy for purchase of EVs, eliminate grants for carbon capture technology, and zero out incentives for production of clean vehicle batteries.
• Cut Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy programs by $2.57 billion, taking aim at what the administration calls “Green New Scam interests and climate change related activity.” Among programs targeted for elimination are the Justice 40 initiative to steer climate and infrastructure investments to low-income and minority communities, as well as programs that promote consumer product efficiency and safety.
• Cut $1.15 billion from the Office of Sciences which takes aim at research into climate change and clean energy, which the administration dismisses as part of a “Green New Scam.”

The proposal calls for a nearly 55 percent cut to the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency, which is tasked with protecting the nation’s air, water, land and climate. If Congress approves this request, the EPA would be forced to operate on its smallest budget since 1986, according to agency records.

Key proposed changes

• Cut $254 million for cleaning up toxic waste sites under the Superfund program.
• Slash $235 million from the EPA’s Office of Research and Development, which the Trump administration may shutter altogether.
• Eliminate a $100 million environmental justice program “that enabled a witch hunt against private industry,” according to a White House fact sheet.

The department oversees health insurance programs such as the Affordable Care Act, which Trump has pledged to run, even though he has said he would prefer to overhaul it. HHS and its subagencies are also responsible for administering Medicare and Medicaid; leading the federal response to public health emergencies and outbreaks such as the coronavirus pandemic; funding biomedical research; and approving drugs, vaccines and devices, among numerous other functions.

Trump’s budget proposes a 26 percent reduction to the department’s $127 billion budget, most of which would come from a deep cut to the National Institutes of Health.

Key proposed changes

• Cut the NIH budget by about 40 percent, to $27 billion. The proposal outlines a major consolidation and reorganization of the institutes focused on disease research. It justifies the dramatic downsizing by saying the NIH has “broken the trust of the American people.”
• Cut the budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by at least 40 percent, to about $4 billion. It would shrink the focus of the agency to emerging and infectious-disease outbreak investigations. It seeks to eliminate “duplicative, DEI, or simply unnecessary programs,” including all the chronic disease programs, such as for smoking, heart disease, diabetes and cancer prevention.
• Provide $500 million in funding for Make America Healthy Again initiatives, to focus on areas such as nutrition, physical activity and environmental impacts on health.

Trump wants to increase funding to the Department of Homeland Security by $43.8 billion, while cutting hundreds of millions of dollars for FEMA’s non-disaster grant programs and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The budget also proposes slashing FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, which provides additional funding for “sheltering and related activities to noncitizen migrants following their release from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).”

Key proposed changes

• Add $43.8 billion toward enacting Trump’s mass deportation push, constructing the border wall and bolstering Secret Service protective operations, according to the White House. The funding would need to come from Congress.
• Cut non-disaster FEMA grant programs by $646 million, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency by $491 million and eliminate FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program.
• Reduce funding for Transportation Security Administration screening.

Proposed cuts largely mirror the administration’s messaging so far, especially when it comes to shifting power and funding responsibility away from the federal government and toward individual states. HUD Secretary Scott Turner has put particular focus on streamlining funds and slashing costs that go to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, or other programs that he says stray from HUD’s mandate.

Key proposed changes

• Reduce more than $26 billionfor a range of rental assistance programs, in part to shift more power to states to design their own initiatives. It also proposes instituting a two-year cap on rental assistance for able-bodied adults — a move that is likely to garner strong pushback from housing advocates and other experts.
• Slash the bipartisan Community Development Block Grant, which is used for a range of economic development work. The proposal said CDBG funding is “poorly targeted.”
• Eliminate a key fair housing grant program relied upon by local groups and nonprofits that investigate claims of housing discrimination and ensure equal access to housing.
• The proposal also says that the budget includes $25 million in housing grants for youth aging out of foster care.

The proposal calls for a 30.5 percent overall cut to the Interior Department, which oversees hundreds of millions of acres of federal land that are key to the Trump administration’s plans to boost U.S. oil and gas production.

Key proposed changes

• Cut more than $1 billion for the National Park Service, which already faces staffing shortages at parks across the country.
• Cut $342 million for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Cut $198 million for the Bureau of Land Management’s conservation programs.

The White House proposal shrinks the Justice Department’s budget, aligning it with the president’s priorities by shifting resources toward immigration enforcement and away from sections that conservatives have said push a liberal social agenda.

The Justice Department distributes billions of dollars each year to local organizations and governments to develop programs to combat gun violence, opioid addiction and domestic violence. Some grants are used to conduct research on social issues, such as gun violence, and develop policy solutions with universities. The grants program would sustain the biggest cuts under the proposed budget, more than $1 billion. The proposal calls some grantees “radical” and criticizes grants aimed at stopping violence against women, including transgender women.

Key proposed changes

• Reduce the FBI budget by $545 million, which the White House says will help undo “the weaponization of the FBI that pervaded the previous administration.” The proposal says the FBI will focus resources in counterintelligence and counterterrorism while reducing “DEI programs, pet projects of the former administration, and duplicative intelligence activities that are already effectively housed in other agencies.”
• Cut $468 million from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which it criticizes for pushing policies that tightened gun control laws in recent years.

Branded as a “Make America Skilled Again” plan, the budget calls for cutting money to programs aimed at boosting employment among young people as well as seniors, arguing those efforts are hampered by “progressive nonprofits” or are duplicative of more effective programs run locally.

Key proposed changes

• Cut $1.64 billion in grants sent to states to develop employment and training opportunities for people after high school. The administration says states can use that money to directly negotiate with employers, instead of funding such efforts through what it calls “progressive nonprofits.”
• Elimiate Jobs Corps, claiming it is ineffective at bolstering employment among youth and has been even, at times, harmful to them. The administration claims this will save more than $1.58 billion.
• Cut funding to the Senior Community Service Employment Program by $405 million. The administration says some SCSEP work is “duplicative” and not as effective as other programs run locally.

The agency oversees human spaceflight and space science in the United States. Trump has verbally endorsed travel to Mars, expressing frustration during his first administration that NASA was going to the moon but not yet to Mars.

Key proposed changes

• Terminate the costly Space Launch System rocket and Orion capsule after two moon missions, including one landing.
• Add $1 billion for Mars-focused spaceflight efforts.
• Cut NASA science portfolio nearly in half, including killing the troubled Mars Sample Return mission.

The State Department, the home of U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy, faces significant cuts under the proposed 2026 budget. The budget also assumes that it would assume control of programs that had been run by the U.S. Agency for International Development, a separate body that dealt with foreign aid and humanitarian assistance before being dismantled early in President Donald Trump’s second term.

Key proposed changes

• Cut more than $8.3 billion to U.S. economic and development aid, which the administration said went to “radical, leftist priorities,” including climate change and DEI and LGBTQ+ activities. It also cuts more than $3.2 billion from disaster assistance funding.
• Take aim at U.S. support for international institutions, cutting $1.7 billion in most assessed and all voluntary contributions to the United Nations, including the World Health Organization. All U.S. funding for U.N. and other peacekeeping missions, some $1.6 billion, is cut, while $690 million is cut from educational and cultural exchanges.
• Increase funding for two programs: The first, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, a preexisting agency focused on private-sector partnerships rather than foreign aid, would get a further $2.8 billion. A new fund, called the America First Opportunities Fund, or A1OF, would get $2.9 billion. This fund has a broad remit, including investment in nations like India and Jordan and funding repatriations, leading some former officials to call it a “slush fund” for State Department spending not earmarked by Congress.

The budget request calls for more money to fund the Federal Aviation Administration, which has been under the spotlight following the deadly Jan. 29 crash between an airliner and an Army helicopter near Washington’s Reagan National Airport. It also calls for some additional infrastructure building money, but most funding for roads, bridges and transit falls outside the annual budget process.

Key proposed changes

• Add $1.2 billion for the FAA, money the administration says would be used to boost air traffic controller hiring and overhaul the technology used to direct aircraft.
• Add $770 million to fund major highway, port and rail projects. It also includes an extra $400 million for railroad safety projects, pointing to the fiery 2023 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that became a signature issue for Vice President JD Vance.
• Changes to the Essential Air Service, which subsidizes flights in remote areas, seeking a cut of $308 million. The program is popular among lawmakers in districts it serves, but the cost of the subsidies has made it a perennial target for cuts.

Trump’s budget generally left the Treasury Department alone — except for the IRS. The budget seeks to cut IRS funding by $2.5 billion. The agency has already frozen hiring, initiated broad-based layoffs and paused a Biden-era technology modernization process under the direction of officials from the U.S. DOGE Service.

Key proposed changes

• Cut $2.5 billion from the IRS.
• Cut $291 million in grant programs.
• Add $100 million for the Rural Financial Award Program.

The administration proposed increasing overall spending at the Department of Veterans Affairs by about 4 percent, which would also include money for veterans who seek private medical care outside the government-run system. The move comes after the administration had already planned cuts to VA’s workforce and contracts — some of which were later reversed. During Trump’s first term, he pushed to allow veterans to move their health care to private doctors and hospitals.

The Trump administration said the proposed funding, along with money from the $50 billion Toxic Exposures Fund (TEF), will enable the country to provide “world-class health care” to veterans, though it did not acknowledge that the TEF was signed into law by President Joe Biden.

Key proposed changes

• Fund almost $2.2 billion to upgrade electronic medical records so they can be accessed “anywhere they seek care.”
• Cut nearly half a billion dollars for what the Trump administration says are outdated and “duplicative” information technology systems at the agency. An additional $37 million in cuts target diversity, equity and inclusion programs.