On Monday, the Trump Administration released its Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Presidential budget request. The $4.4 trillion proposal would make cuts to many domestic programs, while increasing the defense budget.

As part of its request, the Administration proposed radical changes to the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). In addition to cutting the program by $17.2 billion in FY19, the Administration is calling for a wholesale redesign of SNAP. Instead of being able to use SNAP benefits at retailers as if they were cash, for many families, the Department of Agriculture would take about half of the allowance for most SNAP families to buy and deliver a package of U.S. grown commodity foods. The Administration is claiming this will help reduce costs, though industry groups, such as the Food Marketing Institute, have strongly criticized the proposal, saying it would be extremely inefficient. This proposal is likely a non-starter, but CDA will be following it closely and advocating against this change in SNAP.

Congress will now work to both craft FY19 funding legislation, as well fund the government for the rest of 2018.

The Administration also released details for its $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan. The plan calls for leveraging $200 billion in direct federal spending, increasing the role of public-private partnerships, and encouraging more state and local investment. The proposal did not include an increase of the federal gas tax.