U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21) on Friday praised President Donald Trump’s newly unveiled budget proposal, calling it a “transformational” document that sharply reduces non-defense federal spending while maintaining strong support for the military and border security.
The White House plan outlines $163 billion in federal budget cuts for fiscal year 2025, aiming to slash spending on education, housing, medical research, and other non-defense programs while boosting discretionary defense funding by 13%. Homeland security spending would increase nearly 65% over 2025 enacted levels as part of Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Roy applauded the budget’s emphasis on slashing what he referred to as the “woke, weaponized, and wasteful bureaucracy,” noting it rolls back federal agency budgets to levels below those seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This budget re-aligns federal spending to the priorities of the people: a secure nation, making America healthy again, a Justice Department combatting crime and not weaponized against the people, and common sense,” Roy said in a statement. “We are poised to deliver prosperity, freedom, and strength to the American people.”
The proposal includes a 23% reduction in non-defense discretionary spending, according to the Office of Management and Budget, which would bring that category to its lowest level since 2017. More than $2 billion would be cut from the Internal Revenue Service, while the budgets of the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be slashed by over 40%.
The plan also seeks to shrink or eliminate several federal agencies and initiatives. The Department of Education would see its funding cut by roughly 15%, consistent with Trump’s campaign promise to diminish its role. Housing and Urban Development would face nearly a 50% budget reduction. NASA’s moon mission, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among other agencies targeted for cuts.
While Roy and other fiscal conservatives have praised the cuts, Democrats and some Republicans criticized the plan. Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) expressed concerns that defense spending was insufficient and said the domestic cuts could hurt low-income Americans.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the budget “an allout assault on hardworking Americans.”
OMB Director Russ Vought, a key architect of the plan and former head of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, defended the proposal. “At this critical moment, we need a historic budget — one that ends the funding of our decline, puts Americans first, and delivers unprecedented support to our military and homeland security,” he said.
Critics, including nonpartisan budget experts, warn that extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts— another centerpiece of the proposal—could further swell the federal debt, which already exceeds $36 trillion. Still, the White House and GOP leaders in Congress hope to pass a reconciliation bill by July 4 that would enshrine the tax cuts and offset some costs with federal program reforms, including changes to Medicaid.
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