On April 3, the White House released the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 budget request, outlining the administration's proposals for budgetary spending for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2026. The President’s budget requests cutting non-defense discretionary funding by 10 percent, or $73 billion. This budget proposal reflects the administration’s priorities but is unlikely to be passed in its current form and will need to be approved by Congress to be implemented.

See full budget request

Top Highlights for Counties:

The budget request:

Eliminates the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which provides energy cost and weatherization assistance to low-income households
Eliminates the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), which supports anti-poverty programs with a focus on housing, health, employment, income and civic engagement outcomes
Cuts the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) non-disaster grant programs by $1.5 billion
Eliminates the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and the Home Investment Partnerships (HOME) programs, threatening vital tools for communities to address housing and community development challenges
Reduces homeless assistance grant funding and restructures the Continuum of Care and Emergency Solutions Grant programs to prioritize transitional housing and conditional treatment in lieu of “housing first” approaches
Eliminates the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, limiting rural communities’ ability to expand access to capital, support small businesses and drive local economic growth
Reconfigures workforce development funding under the Make America Skilled Again Act
Functionally eliminates the Economic Development Administration, threatening critical support for economically distressed communities
Cuts $1.7 billion in state and local grants at the U.S. Department of Justice, including eliminating almost 30 grant programs entirely
Cuts the Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Funds by $2.5 billion, which would impact counties’ ability to maintain and improve water infrastructure without raising rates for residents
Eliminates Community Facilities Grant Program, which funds community development projects and essential services in rural communities
Reduces funding for the Essential Air Service program by significantly curtailing eligibility for program participation, which could cause rural counties to lose access to commercial air service
Ends funding for the BUILD program through the U.S. Department of Transportation, a flexible discretionary grant program that counties have used for a variety of road, bridge, transit, airport, port and multimodal projects
Cuts the National Institute of Health’s funding by $5 billion
Unifies all federal wildland firefighting assets under the U.S. Wildlife Fire Service within the Department of the Interior, including those currently under control of the U.S. Forest Service
Enhances mandatory budget authority for the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund, with $55 billion requested for FY2027 and $54 billion requested as an advance appropriation for FY2028
Reduces the budget of the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA) by nearly 25%, cutting certain stakeholder engagement offices and eliminating other programs deemed duplicative of existing programming at the Federal or state level
Eliminates all election security grants made available via Help America Vote Act (HAVA) from $45M in FY2026 to $0 indefinitely

Next steps

NACo will continue to monitor the budgetary and appropriations process for impacts on programs that affect counties and will provide an in-depth analysis of the President's full FY 2027 budget request in the coming days.

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