President’s FY 2011 Budget to Include Freeze on Non-Security Discretionary Funds for Three Years

In conversations with Administration officials on Tuesday, ANCOR learned that the proposed freeze to be included in the President’s proposed FY 2011 budget submitted to Congress on February 1st will not affect mandatory programs (entitlements) such as Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. The proposal would not place a freeze on defense, homeland security, Veteran’s Affairs, or international/global funding. The proposed budget will seek to save $250 billion over 10 years to help address the $8 trillion deficit that this Administration said it inherited.

The freeze or cuts will not be equally borne across federal discretionary programs—some programs may get an increase, while others will be frozen or cut, and some eliminated. Officials stated that questions regarding specific programs would have to await the submission of the budget on Monday. As ANCOR members will recall, discretionary programs equal only 15 percent of the federal budget, with 85 percent spent on entitlement programs, interest on the national debt, and defense-related spending.