Federal Government Policy and Business

White House 'skinny budget' faces long slog up Capitol Hill

Federal Times: White House budget director Mick Mulvaney is expected to release his 2018 budget blueprint Thursday, but it is already getting pushback on Capitol Hill.

Analysts say the so-called "skinny budget's" inclusion of $603 billion for the Pentagon — a $54 billion defense boost, paid for by cutting most non-defense accounts, including foreign aid — is one of many items likely to shift before lawmakers can find their way to a bipartisan deal.

“I don’t think much of what will be proposed on Thursday will get through as proposed, and a lot of suggestions are going to be dead on arrival when they hit the Congress,” Jim Moran, a former Democratic congressman from Virginia who served for many years on the House Appropriations Committee, told Defense News.

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