# Plain Language Summary: 2% Budget Cut Bill

This bill would cut 2 percent from most federal government spending for two years—2024 and 2025. However, it specifically protects three areas: the military, homeland security, and veterans' benefits. So the cuts would only apply to everything else the government does.

To understand what this means in practical terms, imagine the federal government as a household budget. If the government spends money on things like national parks, food safety inspections, weather forecasting, scientific research, education programs, environmental protection, and hundreds of other services, this bill would reduce funding for those things by 2 percent each year. That might sound small, but across the entire federal budget, it adds up to billions of dollars. A 2 percent cut means fewer park rangers, slower processing of applications, reduced research funding, and potentially slower service delivery across many agencies.

The bill protects defense spending, which means the military budget stays the same. It also shields homeland security (like the Department of Homeland Security and border protection) and veterans' affairs (benefits and services for military veterans). This means the burden of the cuts falls entirely on other federal programs—everything from the FBI to the National Institutes of Health to the Social Security Administration's administrative costs to the Department of Transportation.

If this bill became law, you might notice effects depending on what federal services you use. People who rely on federal research, national parks, food and drug safety inspections, or other non-protected government services could experience slower responses or reduced availability. However, military personnel, veterans, and those depending on homeland security functions would see no change to their services.

A bill to make 2 percent across-the-board rescissions in non-defense, non-homeland-security, and non-veterans-affairs discretionary spending for each of fiscal years 2024 and 2025.

Blackburn, Marsha

This bill requires 2% across-the-board rescissions to FY2024 and FY2025 appropriations provided for any non-defense, non-homeland-security, and non-veterans-affairs discretionary account by any appropriations act. For the purpose of this bill, a non-defense, non-homeland-security, and non-veterans-affairs discretionary account is a discretionary spending account other than any account <ul> <li>included in a Department of Defense Appropriations Act; </li> <li>included in a Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act; </li> <li>of the Department of Defense or the Department of Veterans Affairs included in a Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act; or </li> <li> for Department of Energy defense activities included in an Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.</li> </ul>