May 08, 2018 - 7:31 AM
WASHINGTON - The Latest on the Trump administration's proposed spending cuts (all times local):
10:23 a.m.
President Donald Trump has sent lawmakers a plan to wipe more than $15 billion in unused spending off the government's books.
The plan wouldn't have much practical impact on targeted programs such as the popular Children's Health Insurance Program but would take away leftover funding that could be used to pay for spending elsewhere in the budget.
House Republican leaders hope to pass the measure this month, but it faces more resistance in the narrowly divided Senate.
White House Budget director Mick Mulvaney called the cuts "an obvious step toward reducing unnecessary spending and protecting the American taxpayer."
Trimming back previously allocated funding used to be common in Washington but the so-called rescissions process hasn't been used since the Clinton administration.
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12:06 a.m.
The Trump administration is targeting $15 billion left unspent from previous budget years as a way of trimming federal spending.
If enacted by Congress, the so-called rescission package would take spending authority off the table so those funds can't be tapped by lawmakers for other uses in the future.
Even if the $15 billion package is approved it would only have a tiny impact on the government's budget deficit. It's on track to total more than $800 billion this year.
Democrats have supported such cuts in the past, eager to grab easy budget savings to finance new spending. They are howling about the Republicans' proposed cuts.
The administration says it will propose cuts to the recent $1.3 trillion catchall spending bill later in the year.
News from © The Associated Press, 2018