BY PAUL M. KRAWZAK AND JOHN T. BENNETT

CQ ROLL CALL

President Donald Trump will slice into nondefense spending to pay for a 10 percent increase in defense spending in his fiscal 2018 budget, a senior Office of Management and Budget official said Monday. In addition, officials said the so-called skinny budget, or budget outline, will be shipped to Congress on March 16.

Trump is proposing a $54 billion increase in defense, taking defense up to $603 billion in fiscal 2018. Nondefense accounts would be cut by a corresponding $54 billion, in part by cuts in foreign aid.

The White House was set to deliver draft topline budget numbers to departments and agencies on Monday in a process called “passback.” During passback, OMB officials notify departments and agencies of their approved budgetary levels, which may differ from the agencies’ budget requests. The passback decisions can also include policy changes. Agencies can appeal the decisions to the OMB.

The Pentagon will make recommendations for where to allocate its additional $54 billion, and all non-security agencies will take a hit, a person briefed on the Trump plan told CQ Roll Call.

The plan would break the current firewall between defense and nondefense as specified in the 2011 deficit reduction law, which lowered the caps on defense and nondefense spending after a special congressional committee was unable to agree on $1.2 trillion in additional deficit reduction.