Russ Vought, acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said President Trump plans to propose a fiscal 2020 budget to fund defense and national security priorities without raising the spending caps. Vought wrote in a commentary posted Monday for RealClearPolitics that the proposed budget will designate additional defense resources as overseas contingency operations funds, which are not subject to the budget caps.
He noted that fiscal conservatives might not be in favor of expanding the use of OCO funds to prevent raising the budget caps but such a measure “remains the administration’s only fiscally responsible option in meeting national security needs while avoiding yet another increase to the spending caps.
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The president’s 2020 budget will meet the target of a 5 percent reduction to non-defense discretionary spending, by means of one of the largest spending reductions in history,†Vought wrote. “Within these constrained levels, agencies will still be able to provide investments in key national priorities.â€
Vought said President Trump will submit his fiscal 2020 budget request to Congress in the coming weeks.
