White House delays Trump’s budget release over shutdown

The White House is delaying the release of President Trump’s budget proposal because of the three-day government shutdown over the weekend, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said Wednesday.

The fiscal 2019 spending blueprint — which will be Trump’s second budget request to Congress — will now be unveiled on Feb 12. It had originally been expected in early February.

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“Preparing for and then implementing the recent lapse in appropriations meant that both OMB and agency staff lost several work days during an especially critical part of the budget production process,” an OMB spokeswoman said.

Trump’s first budget request, for fiscal 2018, proposed slashing government programs and dramatically reshaping federal spending.

The government has been operating under a series of short-term funding extensions since the start of fiscal 2018.

In Congress, lawmakers are still haggling over the top-line spending numbers for fiscal 2018, though leadership has said a deal is close. Lawmakers need to raise the budget caps in order to avoid across-the-board spending cuts that are mandated by sequestration.

But a fight over immigration — and a Democratic push to include equal increases for defense and nondefense programs — has stalled the budget caps deal, which is needed so that appropriators can actually start writing the omnibus spending bill for fiscal 2018.