An Analysis of Spending Proposals in the President's 2027 Budget
Report
CBO estimates how the proposals in the President's budget request for 2027 would affect mandatory and discretionary spending over the 2027–2036 period.
Each year, the Administration submits a budget request to the Congress, and the Congressional Budget Office estimates the budgetary effects of the proposals in that request using its own economic forecast and estimating assumptions. CBO's estimate allows the Congress to compare the Administration's proposals with CBO's current-law spending and revenue projections using a consistent set of economic and technical assumptions.
On April 3, 2026, the Administration submitted its budget request to the Congress for fiscal year 2027. The request included proposals that would affect mandatory and discretionary spending but did not include proposals that would affect revenues. In addition, the budget request did not contain any calculations of summary measures, such as budget deficits or federal debt. As a result, this analysis focuses only on CBO's estimates of how the President's proposals would affect mandatory and discretionary spending in 2027 and the succeeding nine years.
On net, the proposals in the President's budget would have the following effects on federal spending over the 2027–2036 period:
Increase mandatory outlays by a total of $351 billion, primarily for defense programs and activities;
Increase discretionary outlays for defense by a total of $2.4 trillion; and
Reduce discretionary outlays for nondefense programs by a total of $2.6 trillion.
In conjunction with analyzing the President's budget, CBO updated its projections of mandatory and discretionary spending under current law to account for legislation enacted since it completed its most recent full set of baseline budget projections, which were published in February 2026. CBO also made small technical adjustments (revisions that do not stem from new laws or changes in its economic forecast) to its projections of discretionary spending over the 2027–2036 period. The effects of the spending proposals contained in the President's budget are measured in relation to CBO's updated projections, which reflect the assumption that current laws governing federal spending will generally remain in place. (CBO's updated spending projections are discussed at the end of this report.)
