# Federal Update | President’s Budget Outline for FY20 Released March 12, 2019 The White House yesterday released its topline budget request for Fiscal Year 2020, once again proposing increased spending on defense, large cuts to spending on non-defense and mandatory programs, and significant new funding for a border wall. Of these familiar themes, which were included in each of the President’s two prior budget requests, only a growing defense budget has come to fruition. With Democrats now in control of the House and the 2020 election cycle already underway, the President’s newest budget is no more likely to be enacted than previous versions. However, it does give a preview of the Administration’s priorities and where we can expect the policy and funding fights to take place, particularly with agreement needed later this year to fix issues like the debt limit and the scheduled return of sequester level spending. **The President’s Budget Request** The President’s FY20 budget proposes overall spending of $4.75 trillion, of which $1.3 trillion would be spent on the discretionary side of the budget that Congress appropriates each year. The requested discretionary total is 1.8 percent below last year’s level. Though such a reduction may seem modest, within that total, the president proposes a 9.3 percent reduction to non-defense spending – which funds student aid, NIH, NSF and other research agencies – while increasing defense by nearly five percent. The President also includes a request of $8.6 billion for border wall funding, just weeks after the end of the longest government shutdown in history that resulted from Congressional rejection of his previous request of $5.7 billion. Given the level of cuts and the shift in priorities, many accounts of long-standing concern to the University are substantially cut or eliminated in the budget proposal, including key higher education and student aid programs, ARPA-E, and NIH, which is cut 12 percent. On the mandatory side of the budget, the White House proposes changes to and cuts of $1.25 trillion over ten years to programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and some student loan programs. For student loans, the Administration proposes cutting student in-school interest subsidies, paring back loan forgiveness (including the elimination of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program), and enacting new institutional risk share in student loan programs. Since the budget proposal released yesterday was not the complete request for FY20, we do not yet have proposals for certain departments, agencies and programs. We expect additional details on the President’s blueprint to be released over the coming week. As such, the overview below should be considered preliminary. Sort **Final FY19** **FY20 PBR** **FY20 PBR v. FY19** **Labor-HHS-Education** NIH 39084 34400 -12.0% Pell Grants (Discretionary Funding) 22475 22475 0.0% Pell Grants (Max Grant) 6195 6195 0.0% Federal Perkins Loans Work Study 1130 500 -55.8% SEOG 840 0 -100.0% TRIO 1060 950 -10.4% GEAR UP 360 0 -100.0% Title VI 72 0 -100.0% GAANN 23 0 -100.0% Institute of Education Sciences 615 522 -15.1% **Commerce-Justice-Science** NSF -Total 8075 7100 -12.1% NSF- Research and Related 6520 5663 -13.1% NSF - Major Research Equipment 295.7 223 -24.5% NSF - Ed & HR 910 823.5 -9.5% NASA -Total 21500 21000 -2.3% NASA - Science 6905.7 6303.7 -8.7% NASA - Aeronautics 725.0 666.9 -8.0% NASA - Education 110.0 0 -100.0% **Defense** 6.1 Basic Research 2619.6 2320.0 -11.4% 6.2 Applied Research 6068.2 5317.2 -12.4% DARPA 3432 3556.2 3.6% **Energy and Water** Office of Science - Total 6585 5500 -16.5% High Energy Physics 980 768 -21.6% Nuclear Physics 690 625 -9.4% Basic Energy Sciences 2166 1858 -14.2% Biological and Envir. Research 705 494 -29.9% ARPA-E 366 0 -100.0% **Interior-Environment** NEA 155 29 -81.3% NEH 155 37.9 -75.5% EPA S&T 706.5 463.1 -34.5% **Looking Ahead and Contact** As alarming as these cuts appear, it is important to note that Congress will take the lead on budget matters and the overall discretionary levels to be appropriated this year. And most lawmakers on both sides of the aisle already agree that the low statutory budget caps scheduled to take effect for FY20 need to be raised significantly and have also tended to work together in a bipartisan fashion to develop and pass funding bills more like FY19 than the President’s request. However the President does have substantial power in this process as well. Because the caps are written into law, any change will require the President’s signature as will the final FY20 appropriations measures. With the President standing firm on his vision for spending, Democrats now in control of the House, and agreement needed on both the debt limit and a budget deal, a tumultuous budget year likely lies head. If you have any questions on this update or Harvard’s engagement in Washington, please feel free to be in touch with Suzanne Day ([suzanne\_day@harvard.edu](mailto:///suzanne_day@harvard.edu)) or Jon Groteboer ([jon\_groteboer@harvard.edu](mailto:///jon_groteboer@harvard.edu)) in the Office of Federal Relations. See also:- [ Budget and Appropriations ](/issues/budget-appropriations) - [ Washington Updates ](/news-source/washington-update) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)