President Donald Trump on Friday unveiled his initial budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2026, proposing $163 billion in cuts to non-defense spending – along with a big increase in defense spending – and a pay freeze for Federal civilian employees.
Taken together, the budget request for FY2026 proposes a 7.6 percent cut from FY2025 enacted levels.
If enacted as proposed – which is highly unlikely – the FY2026 budget request would mark the first time the budget has not featured a pay increase for Federal civilian employees since 2013. The budget request does, however, include a 3.8 percent pay raise for military service members.
Topline Numbers
President Trump is proposing a base non-defense discretionary budget authority that comes in $163 billion below current-year spending – making for a 22.6 percent funding cut for non-defense accounts.
“Savings are achieved by reducing or eliminating programs found to be woke and weaponized against ordinary working Americans, wasteful, or best left to the States and localities to provide,” the White House explained in an overview of the budget request.
At the same time, the budget request features a proposed increase of 13 percent for the Department of Defense and an increase of nearly 65 percent for the Department of Homeland Security compared to FY 2025 enacted levels.
“These increases would be made possible through budget reconciliation, which would allow them to be enacted with simple majorities in the Congress, and not be held hostage by Democrats for wasteful nondefense spending increases as was the case in President Trump’s first term,” the White House said.
The total proposed discretionary spending – including reconciliation resources – comes in at 7.6 percent below the FY 2025 enacted levels. That total includes a 13.4 percent increase in defense discretionary spending and a 16.6 percent decrease in non-defense discretionary spending.
The so-called “skinny” budget request provides congressional appropriators with the White House’s wish list as it begins the FY2026 appropriations process.
Many of those wishes are not likely to come true. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued a statement today saying she has “serious objections” to proposed funding freezes and funding cuts within the budget request.
“The President’s Budget Request is simply one step in the annual budget process. This request has come to Congress late, and key details still remain outstanding. Based on my initial review, however, I have serious objections to the proposed freeze in our defense funding given the security challenges we face and to the proposed funding cuts to – and in some cases elimination of – programs like LIHEAP, TRIO, and those that support biomedical research. Ultimately, it is Congress that holds the power of the purse,” Sen. Collins said.
“The Appropriations Committee has an aggressive hearing schedule to learn more about the president’s proposal and assess funding needs for the coming year,” the lawmaker added.
Pay Freeze for Federal Civilian Employees
Notably, the budget does not include any mention of a pay raise for Federal civilian employees. This presumed pay freeze would effectively prevent Federal civilian employees’ salaries from increasing in line with inflation.
During his first term in office, President Trump proposed pay freezes for civilian employees in the first three of his annual budget requests. However, Congress overruled him each time and gave Federal employees raises between 1.4 and 2.6 percent.
“In his 2020 budgetary request, he initially requested a 1 percent pay increase for Federal employees before backtracking and suggesting a pay freeze, with Congress later adopting that 1 percent pay increase,” according to the National Active and Retired Federal Employees.
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Public Policy Director Jacqueline Simon spoke to MeriTalk today to discuss the pay freeze. Simon stressed that budget requests are “extremely preliminary documents,” and AFGE will urge Congress to implement a pay adjustment.
“If you look at the big picture of the massive reductions in jobs and then job protections and retirement benefits – all of these things that are on the agenda of this administration – the pay freeze certainly comports with all that, but it’s salt in the wounds,” Simon said.
“We certainly will do everything we can to try to persuade the Congress to provide a pay adjustment for civilians, at least equivalent to what is provided for the military,” she added. “There’s a long tradition of that parity between the two workforces when it comes to pay adjustments, and we will urge Congress to honor that tradition.”
Democrats have previously called for pay parity across the Federal government, which would equalize civilian government employee pay raises with those in the works for members of the military.
Additionally, Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, have introduced various versions of the Federal Adjustment of Income Rates (FAIR) Act for over a decade. The bills look to provide the Federal workforce with a pay raise to keep public service jobs competitive with those in the private sector.
In a statement to MeriTalk, Rep. Connolly slammed President Trump’s pay freeze decision.
“Donald Trump has launched a cruel, unprecedented assault on the Federal workforce and the critical services it provides to the American people. He has carried out unlawful mass firings, purged the government of experts, peddled unsanctioned and untrustworthy resignation offers, and subjected employees to un-American loyalty tests,” Rep. Connolly said.
“A pay freeze is the latest in a long line of insults he has lobbed at the Federal workers who keep this country up and running. Civil servants are among our nation’s greatest assets. They deserve the fair compensation they have earned,” the lawmaker said.