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May 6, 2025 15:30-16:08 - CSPAN
37:51
Washington Journal Rick Seltzer
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pedro echevarria
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will chamberlain
02:27
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pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Joining us is Rick Saltzer.
He's the senior writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education here to talk about the Education Department's efforts on collections on defaulted student loans.
Rick Saltzer, welcome to the program.
unidentified
Thank you so much for having me.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
This announcement was made before it started on Monday, but what prompted the action by the Education Department?
unidentified
Yeah, we knew this was coming for a long time.
We just didn't know all of the details.
So go all the way back to March of 2020, when the pandemic was first sweeping through the government, or at least changes because of the pandemic were sweeping through the government.
President Trump, still in his first term, actually paused loan payments under the federal student loan portfolio.
That ended up getting extended many, many times under the Biden administration.
Eventually, I believe Congress actually mandated repayment resume.
Of course, the Biden administration fought to forgive large chunks of student loans.
It was turned back at every corner.
And so fast forward to now, we knew that folks were going to have to start repaying their federal student loans.
The question was, what degree of outreach would the education department do?
How could they get the message out?
Do borrowers even know what they have to do to repay?
Do they know how much they owe each month?
Because you have years and years of folks who graduated and haven't had to pay their loans.
And then you also have folks who had been paying up until the pandemic and then did not have to pay for four or five years.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
So to that last part of the degree of outreach, the degree of information a loan owner has, how would you grade that or how would you characterize the education department's work on that?
unidentified
I think that is a to be determined, maybe an incomplete at this moment in time.
will chamberlain ▲ ● ▼
We'll know when we know how many folks start to actually get into repayment.
unidentified
I think up to this point, it is fair to say that it is likely lacking or that hasn't been sinking in.
You know, when the education department said last month that they were going to start putting people into collections, they estimated that within a few months, as many as 10 million borrowers could be in default.
That's about a quarter of the student loan portfolio.
will chamberlain ▲ ● ▼
No matter what you think about federal student loans, that's probably not a good marker.
unidentified
Now, the education department said last month, we'll be doing additional outreach.
I believe there were some emails.
They at one point touted an AI chat bot.
Your servicer was supposed to be reaching out to you.
Just yesterday, they told colleges, please reach out to your alumni and former students to let them know they need to get into repayment.
The real question is, how many folks are they reaching at current addresses, current email addresses?
Are they giving the information clearly in a way that the former student or alumni can understand after, again, they haven't been involved in this system for a long time in some cases?
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
If you want to ask questions about this process about the education department, collecting on defaulted student loans, 202-748-8000 for those who have student loans, 202-748-8001, if you have paid them off, you want to give your perspective.
All others, 202-748-8002.
And you have a chance to ask questions of Rick Selter of the Chronicle for Higher Education.
Rick Selter, what defines a loan in default?
unidentified
Yeah, so a defaulted loan, I believe, is it hasn't had any monthly payments in about a year, 360 days.
There's also some late-stage delinquency, that's 91 to 80, 180 days.
So there's several stages along the way before you get to default.
Once you're in default, the government can start taking payments without you having any control over it.
So I believe they're starting with federal payments.
That's tax returns, social security payments for those who either are receiving retirement payments or disability payments through Social Security.
But I believe it can be escalated all the way to garnishment of wages.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
And so that's just one of the many ways for the department to collect.
Will they be doing this on their own?
Will they be hiring out outside sources to help in these collection processes?
How does that work?
unidentified
Yeah, I believe there's a contractor, just like they contract out to various companies that are known as loan servicers to actually collect from students who are current on their loans or move them into the correct payment plan, the payment plan they've requested.
Just like there are companies they contract with to do that, there is one who handles defaulted student loans.
The other point I should make about what happens when you go into default or fall behind on your student loans is this can really hurt your credit rating.
So if you want to borrow for something like a car or a house or various other things that you may need, even just to get to work, it can become harder if you're behind on your student loans now.
For the last several years, I don't believe they were referring folks to credit, have their credit scores impacted.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
If someone finds themselves being contacted by the education department and they start collecting like in the method you talked about, what recourse does the loan owner have at that point?
unidentified
There is a default resolution group.
will chamberlain ▲ ● ▼
And I think one of the things we should probably stress is if you are behind on your student loans, if you know it or have just learned, the most important thing to do is to try to contact the department or this default resolution group.
unidentified
Try to work out some way to start making payments again, get into an income-based repayment plan or something that would allow you to not fall into default or to potentially get out of default in a while.
Now, we've heard some stories about long wait times if you're trying to check on your student loans by calling into the hotline.
will chamberlain ▲ ● ▼
We've heard some stories about difficulty getting through, having to wait hours and hours.
It's probably worthwhile to try to fight through that to the extent that you can, because there are some pretty big ramifications if you don't.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
And Rick Seltzer, I was going to bring up the fact that this effort comes at the time where the Trump administration wants to decrease the work of the education department by staffing and other means.
How do those two things square?
unidentified
That's a great question.
So a few months ago or a few weeks ago, they cut the Office of Federal Student Aid Staffing pretty deeply.
I believe two-thirds was the number of staffers that the union that represents folks there said had been lost from that office.
will chamberlain ▲ ● ▼
It's a little difficult to parse exactly how much that filters through to what your borrower is seeing because so much of this work is done by contractors, because so much of it is done by loan servicers.
unidentified
However, I think anytime you have a significant amount of folks coming and going from an office, folks who maybe were checking an email address, answering new questions that were coming up, even if it's that the servicers had escalated, I think that kind of chaos or that kind of unsettled issue in office can filter down and make it a little harder for everyone in the system.
So it's not injecting any certainty into the system.
Let's put it that way.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Rick Seltzer joining us for this conversation, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Michael in Kentucky on the line for those who have paid off their loans.
Michael, thanks for calling.
Go ahead.
unidentified
Good morning, gentlemen.
I'm one of the fortunate people who, by virtue of working for a nonprofit agency for now 20 years, was able to get my loans forgiven.
And it was something I just kind of discovered from a colleague of mine that told me you can actually apply and have that and have those loans forgiven, and they were.
And I'm just wondering how many Americans, you may not know the answer to this, actually take part in that program.
How many student loans are forgiven because someone works in the nonprofit and in the nonprofit industry or in education or public service?
Do you happen to know?
And I'll hang up and listen to your response off air.
Thanks, guys.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
That's Michael England in Kentucky.
unidentified
Mr. Seltzer Yeah, I don't remember the number off the top of my head, but that program has been available for a long time.
One of the really powerful things that some folks do with it is they pair it with an income-based repayment program.
So if you are a social worker is often a good example, relatively low pay, often borrow a lot to get your degree.
You can go into an income-based repayment program, make on-time payments for a number of years.
I believe it's 10 years you have to do on time.
And then at the end of that, this public service loan forgiveness can have the remainder of your debt cleared away.
And that's a much faster process than if you had paid under other plans without the public service loan forgiveness program.
There have been some issues with folks being able to get into that program over the years.
About five or six years ago, I believe it was, there was a report that the education department had not processed virtually any folks for a while under that program.
It got started again.
In the Biden administration, they did a big waiver to try to catch up and try to bolster that program.
It's really, my understanding is it is an option for a lot of folks who have been current on their payments.
But for folks who have fallen behind, I don't believe that is available.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Phillip is next.
Phillips in Maryland has student loans.
Phillip, hello.
unidentified
Hey, good morning, guys.
Thanks for taking my call.
Yes, I have student loans.
I've had them for a number of years.
I'm still paying on them.
However, I did recently apply for like this the save program that President Biden had initiated, and I was approved for an amount that was actually considerably lower than what I was playing before.
I only made a couple payments, and then everything got struck down in the courts, and everything has been on pause for going on, I think, almost a year and a half, two years now.
So my question for you, sir, is since Trump's come back into office and everything, and everything is still on pause, do you think I'm going to have to reapply for the SAVE program?
Or do you think that they're still going to honor the amount I was initially approved for and be able to keep paying that lower amount?
Call for taking my call, guys.
Thank you.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Mr. Seltzer, let's start with an explanation of the SAVE program, if you would.
unidentified
Yeah.
So go back to when the Biden administration was trying to issue broad-based loan forgiveness.
So there was a Supreme Court case about forgiving a chunk of all student borrowers loans.
The court said that the Biden administration did not have the authority to do that.
In the wake of that, they did several other things.
One of them was this new income-based repayment program.
Sets payments based on how much you make each month.
And now there are several other income-based repayment programs, but the save program had some benefits.
Notably, for many borrowers, it was going to lower payments very substantially, as this caller referenced.
I believe it also made it a little easier to get to the end where any remainder of your debts would be cleared.
So, save was then also tied up in courts.
A court did find that the administration didn't have the authority to create it, but the administration had already enrolled millions of people into it.
So, it's tied up in limbo right now.
I believe folks like this caller are all in an interest-free forbearance, so they don't have to make payments.
I don't think they can make payments, but they're not accruing interest either until we see what happens.
And really, it is going to be: we'll see what happens.
Will folks who got into the plan be grandfathered in?
Will they have to be shifted into another plan?
Congress has been talking about redoing the income-based repayment plans in the upcoming big bill.
So, that is very much a to-be-determined.
Hopefully, folks who are in it are not going to feel any confusion, although that's hard to say that they wouldn't, or are not going to be kind of jostled around and not understand what they have to pay once we do know what's going to happen.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Mr. Selzer, it's academic.
Could you explain what forbearance is?
Is there any aspect of forbearance available to current those currently defaulted on loans?
unidentified
To those currently defaulted on loans, I would have to check that.
Forbearance is basically a period in which it's a special status in which you don't have to pay the loan.
And also, the interest does not accrue on the loan.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Let's hear from another Philip.
Philip is in South Carolina on our line for others.
Hello.
unidentified
Hello.
Can you hear me?
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
You're on.
Go ahead.
unidentified
Hey, I'm quite just a curiosity question.
I'm a parent and I've already paid two of my daughters' federal loans and personal loans off.
And I've got a third one.
And one of the other questions, a related question is: my other, the latest daughter that graduated has gone on for further education, but all the loans are in her name.
But I'm sure my name is still on the FAFSA form.
But my youngest one, I've got, I'm on the FAFSA loan for her that she gets grants and whatever loan she can get.
But the remainder of the college cost, I'm paying for it.
So I guess the main question is: if she defaults on her side of the loans, am I responsible for it?
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Okay, that's.
unidentified
Do you know which program the loans are under?
There are a couple of different programs.
There's one in particular where parents can borrow for their students to attend, and that program is actually a borrowing by the parent under the parent's name.
That's right.
That's what I did with mine: I did a parent loan.
Parent Plus.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Parent Plus, Philip?
unidentified
Yeah.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Okay.
unidentified
Yeah.
So if you're in Parent Plus, that's, as I understand it, that's in your name.
And you are the one who has taken out the loan and would have to pay it back.
will chamberlain ▲ ● ▼
If it's some of the other programs, that would be in the student's name.
If it's federal student loans, one of the big confusing factors here is there are also private student loans that the federal government does not issue that are a whole different ball of wax.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Mr. Selter, if collectors are used, and probably they are thinked of in the worst terms of the constant phone calls and everything else, does the same apply to those on these defaulted student loans?
And is there any recourse for those on the other end of getting these calls?
unidentified
I'm sorry, can you say that again?
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
If a collector is used to collect on it and they make a lot of calls or harass or anything else, is there legal recourse or recourses that a student could have if they're getting these type of calls?
unidentified
I think based on what I've seen so far, more calls and outreach would actually be good.
I don't know that it would constitute the level of harassment at this point in time.
I think the bigger concern is that it just goes right to having wages garnished or that it goes right to benefits being garnished.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
You talked about this earlier.
Can you expand on it?
There's a front page story in one of the papers today about the education department going directly to colleges to help with those collections.
Can you elaborate on that?
unidentified
Yeah, this is a really interesting development.
Basically, yesterday, the education department said, colleges, we need you to reach out to the folks who pass through your doors.
I don't think they limited it specifically to those who graduated, but basically said, you know, call your alumni, email your alumni.
We'll try to give you the information about how to contact them if you don't know it, and tell them, urge them to get back into repayment, to start repaying their federal student loans.
This is very unusual.
will chamberlain ▲ ● ▼
It's something the Trump administration had floated a few weeks ago.
unidentified
It is, I think, indicative.
I think it shows that they are trying to find ways to contact folks and trying to have different voices push them to make payments when they haven't been used to it.
I don't get the sense this is something that a lot of colleges are going to be very enthusiastic about, right?
They had a position where they were able to collect the tuition dollars, say it's a federal student loan, and the government deals with it.
And that is very much something the Trump administration is trying to change.
The Trump administration is trying to say, no, colleges, you have skin in this game.
You are part of this system.
You are going to have some of the egg on your face or some accountability or some ramifications if students don't repay at high rates.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Could what options do students have to take their current loan, refinance it to something more manageable?
unidentified
Yeah, that is an option.
If you can consolidate multiple loans, because the loans are issued over each year, you're a student.
You can consolidate it, sometimes in a lower payment.
There are income-driven repayment plans.
There are, in some cases, I believe, hardship pauses.
If you are a recent graduate, you get a six-month grace period in which you don't have to forgive your loans.
will chamberlain ▲ ● ▼
Or if you've left college recently, you have a six-month grace period.
unidentified
And that's, as I rattle off all of these different options, that can be very good because it gives students a lot of options to fit their particular situation.
One of the challenges is it can also be very confusing for the student, for the parent who has either borrowed for the student or is trying to help the student or fresh graduate.
There are a lot of different options.
It can be hard to get through to the department to guide you through the system and find the one that works from you.
will chamberlain ▲ ● ▼
And in past years, frankly, there have been accusations that loan servicers, these companies the government contracts with, to collect student loans, that those loan servicers have not always steered students into the repayment plan that is financially best for the student.
unidentified
There have been some accusations that maybe they steer the student into plans that were more financially lucrative for the servicer.
That has been a long-standing concern, particularly on the left.
will chamberlain ▲ ● ▼
But hopefully, as we go forward, the Trump Education Department will have enough staffing and enough tools that folks can figure out what the right option is for them.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
This is Chris.
Chris on our line for others in Massachusetts.
Hello.
unidentified
Good morning.
My question is this.
My son took a loan out in 2007, and they taught at the school they talked to him and taken not the federal, but the person from another agency.
Now, he lost his job and won the two arrears.
Now, he made arrangements, but every time he catches up, they switch him over to a different borrower and they add money onto his loan, like between $50,000 to $2,000.
And he has never been able to catch up.
Is there something he can do about that?
Now, when you say he did it through another agency, as I said, do you know if this is a loan through the government or is this a private loan issued through a bank or something else?
Yeah, they talked at the school, they talked to him going to the private, not the government.
I went to the government on my first child, but he tried doing it himself.
So he went to a different one.
But like I said, he lost his job.
And now every time they make arrangements, he catches up.
They switch him to another, another collection, another buyer, and they charge him money for a transfer fee.
So he can't catch up because they keep adding money to the loan.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Right.
unidentified
The private student loan market is, you hear a lot of allegations like this, and it's really hard to hear.
It is not as closely regulated and does not have as many options as the federal market.
A lot of that is going to depend on consumer protection laws, probably in your state.
There were some efforts at the federal level from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to look at some private lending operations.
That bureau, as I understand it, has been slashed down pretty substantially in this administration.
You may want to check with like a state attorney general's office to see what laws could protect you there if the lender is not interested in allowing your son to make progress towards payments.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Mr. Saltzer, if someone's defaulted, to what degree can they claim bankruptcy or some other legal means to shield themselves?
unidentified
Yeah, this is one of the things that's unique about student loans, federal student loans, is it has been up until very recently considered impossible to get out of them by declaring bankruptcy.
They are a different class of loan.
And the theory behind that legally was when Congress created this program and made it very hard to get out of them.
The theory is when you go through a bankruptcy process, you have assets that can be reclaimed, right?
You default on a car loan or a home loan.
The bank takes your house or your car.
You can't take someone's education away.
There is no recourse there.
And so the process of bankruptcy, up until relatively recently, the last few years, has been considered impossible to get out of.
There have been some court cases that maybe lower that standard, make it a little easier to go through that process.
But I think it's probably fair to say it's an extremely hard process to use to get your loans forgiven or adjusted.
There are a couple of cases where folks have been able to advance that, but it's still very much a shaky proposition.
And one other thing I should mention just about this generally, I think we often have this perception of the folks who don't pay back their loans or who are unable to pay back their loans having graduated and maybe they have a degree that isn't working out in the job market and they're unable to make payments even though they have a diploma.
That is not based on the research I've seen who struggles the most to pay back their loans.
will chamberlain ▲ ● ▼
It's folks who go for a semester or two, maybe a year or two, and leave college without finishing the degree.
unidentified
So they don't get the prospective earnings bump.
They also don't borrow as much.
If you look at their monthly payments that they'd have to make, they're relatively low.
They just can't make those payments.
Those are the folks who I worry about most in these situations, because they're also most likely to have to be working a lot, probably have other family commitments, and really would be impacted the most.
They have the lowest recourse if they start to get wages garnished or if their credit score drops.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Mr. Selzer, to what degree do you think a student who's borrowing money for education, there clearly explained what the rules are, what the interest rates are, what the terms are?
unidentified
I think there's been a lot of discussion recently about trying to make financial aid offers clearer to make it clearer to the student, to the family, what the student is getting into here.
will chamberlain ▲ ● ▼
I think it's difficult because in many cases, although many student borrowers are not 18 years old, like the traditional picture is, many of them are adults.
unidentified
But in many cases, you are starting with a student who is young, who does not have a lot of experience with credit.
And that's one of the arguments, frankly, for having the government do it, is the government can offer more protections, can make sure they explain what a loan is, what repayments are more clearly.
I don't necessarily know that, I don't know the best way to communicate that information.
I think it is fair to say that a lot of students don't know what they're getting into.
I also think it's probably fair to say that the government could potentially offer much better terms than most students could get on the private market.
There's probably space there to make it better on both sides.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
One more question from X. Mr. Selzer is saying when the administration announced they'll garnish wages for people in default, does that mean entire paychecks?
Or will be garnishing percentages of pay and then adding many folks can end up homeless who are in default if entire wages are garnished?
unidentified
Yeah, it's a percentage.
The number that sticks in my head is 15% is the top garnishment for wages, although I would have to check that.
But it is not the entire paycheck.
I believe it is if you have your tax return garnished, I believe you can lose up to the entire tax return if you owe more than what your tax return would be.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
And now that this program has started, what are you watching for next as you observe the process play out?
will chamberlain ▲ ● ▼
Yeah, we're watching most closely to see how many students do resume paying their loans, right?
unidentified
I gave that number earlier that as much of a quarter of the very large federal student loan portfolio could be in default in a few months.
Do we actually get to that rate?
will chamberlain ▲ ● ▼
If we get there, I think it means that the department's efforts at outreach have not been successful.
If it goes down, if it is not a quarter, if more students enter repayment, that means the department has been successful in reaching out to them, contacting them, pushing them to do something they haven't had to do for years.
unidentified
And that is one thing we're watching.
The other thing we're going to have to watch is what happens in Congress, because Congress is looking at making substantial changes to this system.
And that could really reshape what colleges have available to them financially and what options students have available to them.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Our guest work is available at Chronicle.com, Rick Seltzer with the Chronicle of Higher Education.
He's their senior writer.
Mr. Selzer, thanks for walking us through this.
unidentified
Thank you so much for having me.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Joining us now, Aiden Quigley of CQ Roll Call, reporter specifically taking a look at budget and appropriations issues.
A good thing to have because the president releases a so-called discretionary budget request.
Mr. Quigley, good morning.
unidentified
Thank you for having me.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
When the president releases this request, what's the purpose of the document?
unidentified
So the idea is to kind of lay out his priorities for the upcoming fiscal year, which starts October 1.
So this is the first chance the president has to really say, this is where I want to go when it comes to spending.
Every president releases it and Congress takes it and often goes in a very different direction.
Obviously, when you have the same party controlling both chambers and the presidency, the document carries a little more weight.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
I suppose the document also kind of reveals the intentions of the administration or what's important to the administration.
If that's the case, what does this document reveal?
unidentified
Exactly.
So this document reveals that they want to dramatically increase defense spending with the big caveat that a lot of that is through the budget reconciliation bill, which is being negotiated now and is separate from the appropriations process.
So that increase is $119 billion.
It takes defense spending over $1 trillion for the first time ever.
But in the Senate, they're not happy with that number because a lot of it does rely on them passing this one big beautiful bill, as Trump calls it, this summer, which is obviously a little bit in question as we wait to see how it plays out on the Hill.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
So defense is a priority, also Homeland Security revealed to be a priority in this document.
What's the money figure there?
unidentified
Yeah, significant increase to Homeland Security.
It's very big, billions and billions of dollars.
I think it's $65 billion on that for Homeland.
But that is also in the budget reconciliation bill.
So they, again, are really in a situation where they need to pass this bill in order to get these increases because otherwise it's pretty flat in the actual appropriations process.
It's a proposal.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
It seems like a lot of risk.
Why take that risk if you're tying this budget to that bill?
unidentified
So it's pretty hard to pass appropriation bills because you do need Democratic help.
Obviously, we saw this time Democrats were willing to go along with what Republicans wanted in March with the full year CR instead of risking a government shutdown.
But at the end of the day, the White House thinks that this will give them more flexibility to get the increase that they want without giving the Democrats the non-defense increases that Democrats will always push for in the appropriations process.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Andy Quickly, one of the headlines that came out from this was this idea of cuts when it comes to, or at least potential cuts from this bill.
The figure is $163 billion.
That's the large figure, but break that down for us.
What does that mean?
unidentified
Significant non-defense cuts are coming along with the defense increase.
We end up flat if you take everything together, but to get $119 billion in defense increases, you need an equal cut to non-defense.
Of course, there's a homeland increase, so that is kind of where that number comes from.
But significant across-the-board cuts to non-defense programs.
If you take out the homeland increase, you have about a 25% cut to non-defense programs, especially targeted on the State Department, which is a 48% cut, which is extremely significant.
Obviously, we've seen the Trump administration going after USAID funding as well.
Housing and Arbor Development is also a 44% cut.
So there's really significant non-defense cuts, which Democrats are very upset about and will not sign off on in Congress.
So we're setting ourselves up for another extremely tense appropriations process this year that will likely end in definitely another short-term continuing resolution when we come to October 1.
And then past that, it's going to be a pretty tough fight.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
I want to follow up on that, but I'll invite callers to call in too and ask about this budget request from the White House: 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans, and 202-743-8002 for Independents.
If you want to text us your thoughts or questions about the budget request, 202-748-8003, Democrats' perspective to those potential cuts in programs, what's the main argument we'll hear from Democrats?
unidentified
Well, the main argument is this is going to really harm the lives of Americans by cutting government services that they depend on.
And it's not just Democrats.
We've seen a few Republicans, specifically Susan Collins, the Senate Appropriations Chair, express some questions about the scale of these cuts.
For example, LIHEAP, which is a program which helps low-income folks heat their homes, is facing a very significant cut under this budget.
And in Maine, that's a significant priority.
So that's one that she's already called out as something that she is going to fight to make sure receive some funding.
But across the board cuts to significant programs, health and human services, medical research is another one that Collins talked about.
And one that the Democrats as well, Patty Murray, she's the ranking member on Senate appropriations.
They just had a hearing last week on the importance of medical research and the significant cuts to that in this proposal.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
So Susan Collins, you mentioned, and she said this, put out a statement, and she's the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee side.
She said the president's budget request is simply one step in the annual budgeting 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 freezing our defense funding, given the security challenges we face and to the proposed funding cuts, and in some cases, elimination of the programs you mentioned, LIHEAP, TRIO, and others that support biomedical research.
Ultimately, it is Congress that holds the power of the purse.
Break that down.
You broke down one aspect.
What other concerns when she says, particularly, you know, about the defense spending side?
She calls that a freeze as far as what the president's requested.
unidentified
Exactly.
So that's the discretionary defense spending.
As I was talking about earlier with the bigger bill, the Republicans want more defense spending in the discretionary spending process because that will kind of lock it in, lock in a little bit more than a one-time infusion through reconciliation is the argument that Mitch McConnell was making.
Because if you increase the defense spending levels when it comes to next year's fight, that's kind of the baseline that you're working off of compared to non-defense.
So they really want, and Roger Wicker, too, he's a Senate Armed Services Chairman.
He's saying that the defense spending and reconciliation is supposed to be a one-time infusion to really set the United States on a different path of a bigger military along with these regular annual increases that we are expecting.
But over in the House, a lot of the Republicans want to cut spending.
And if you're giving the Pentagon a trillion dollars, that's harder to do.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
It's the budget hawks, so to speak.
I suppose those in the Freedom Caucus as well are going to express some of the concerns.
Who are the ones to watch, so to speak, as this process plays out?
unidentified
I think in the House, obviously there's been a lot of talk this year about the tiny majority that Republicans have, and it's going to be hard for them to pass spending bills.
And that is definitely going to be true in this process when you come to the end game when you have the Freedom Caucus.
The entire pitch behind the full year CR in March was that we'll do this now and then we can lock in some of the Doge cuts, for example, in the fall.
And by the time the fall rolls around, it'll start to feel like the midterms are coming up a little bit and you'll have some moderates who will be not wanting to significantly slash government spending.
So to pass a bill, they'll have to work with Democrats, which will just open up a whole nother can of worms, likely.
Again, we've seen Republicans pass bills on their own a few times this Congress, which has been kind of an impressive feat when you have such a small majority.
But when it comes to the end game of this appropriation cycle, it's hard to see how you don't work with Democrats to come up with an agreement.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Aiden Quigley reports on budget and appropriations issues for CQ roll call.
Anthony's in Detroit, Independent Line.
Anthony, thanks for calling your first up on this conversation.
Go ahead.
unidentified
Thank you.
Good morning.
This really fires me up because, I mean, you talk about waste and fraud.
I mean, I'm looking at obviously the Pentagon with our 700 some-odd military bases around the world.
They don't really do anything for us.
And now Trump wants to do the mineral deal with Ukraine.
Well, look at that.
Marjorie Taylor Greene says, no, we don't want to waste our money occupying Ukraine.
We have our own minerals.
And Homeland Security.
You can totally get rid of that whole department.
Immigration and naturalization.
That was a Justice Department.
TSA, Transportation Department, Customs, that was in the Treasury.
Just get rid of the Homeland Security.
It was a 9-11 mistake, and that's how we save our money.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
Okay.
Anthony there with thoughts on what's being spent and where.
unidentified
So there are some Democrats, especially on the progressive side, who I think share some similar views that at least you should look at the Pentagon to cut back.
But a vast majority of both parties, I think, supports the defense spending levels that we are considering under the president's budget.
Maybe not as much defense on the defense side.
Obviously, Democrats will want more non-defense spending than Trump is putting forward.
And the level is a lot higher on the defense side than Democrats would be comfortable with in general.
But when you talk about significant cuts to defense spending, that would be a non-starter for most members of both parties.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
You talked about the dance in the House only because of the small majority.
What's facing Speaker Johnson then, as far as the president's request and how much he sells it to his caucus?
unidentified
So this is kind of taking a backseat to reconciliation right now, which is really taking, you know, eating up all of the attention of leadership at this point.
Obviously, there are other issues moving too, but appropriations is going to go to the committee.
And the next step is kind of the House Appropriations Committee will write their bills.
Last night, the chairman, Tom Cole, said that they're going to broadly write in line with the president's budget.
They're still going to figure out exactly where they're going to land on the top line.
But they're really looking at this document as a guiding path on what they want to do in the Senate.
Obviously, we've talked about Collins a lot.
They're going to take a different path.
She has not yet started conversations with the Democrats about a top line agreement over there, and that's going to be extremely difficult to reach.
But they're definitely going to try to spend more in the Senate than the House is going to in their annual processes.
pedro echevarria ▲ ● ▼
We will see Chris Deenome, the DHS Secretary before an Appropriations Committee subcommittee committee today.
We'll see Scott Besson, the Treasury Secretary, before a House Appropriations Subcommittee.
Is this the start of the process when it comes to the budget requests and how much the White House wants?
unidentified
Exactly.
These hearings are kind of the first pivotal step where the secretaries come to Congress and members of both parties question them on their priorities.
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