Rob Friedlander and anonymous

“ For the past decade, due to overly restrictive budget caps, our country has underinvested in core public services, benefits, and protections that are incredibly important to our success.
Since 2010, non-defense discretionary funding has shrunk significantly as a share of the U.S. economy. For example, going into the pandemic, funding for the CDC was 10 percent lower than a decade ago, adjusted for inflation. We’re underinvested in programs like Head Start, which served 95,000 fewer children today than it did a decade ago. ”

“ One, I think they’re great markers to foretell how the administration views budgets. And clearly, this President has seen the degradation of budget caps and what they’ve done, especially on the non-defense discretionary side. I think this is the beginning of a long appropriations process that — however, the President’s budget will influence. I think it will set a tone. And I think there are a lot of bipartisan programs you will see highlighted when you take a look through what the President is championing: cancer research — that is a bipartisan interest; violence against women. ”

“ The discretionary request is a complementary but separate proposal that lays out the President’s funding recommendations for the annual appropriations process. We want to use every lever at our disposal to address the challenges we face. And again, the budget we released in the coming months will put forward a unified agenda for the country that will pull all of these pieces together. ”