Agencies Given Week to Make Total Trims of at Least $10 Billion : Reagan Orders Cuts in Budget Requests

President Reagan has ordered government agencies to reduce their budget requests for the 1988 fiscal year by a total of $10 billion to $15 billion to help trim the federal budget deficit and meet the targets of the Gramm-Rudman budget-balancing law, the White House said Friday.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said the cuts were prompted by slower than expected economic growth and would be included in August’s mid-year economic review being prepared by the Administration for Congress.

However, leading Democrats in Congress, which has not yet approved allocations to the agencies, indicated that they would ignore the recommendations.

The President’s action was a “symbolic order without meaning,” said William H. Gray III (D-Pa.), chairman of the House Budget Committee. “Apparently, the President’s (economic program) is not playing well in Peoria, so the White House seems driven to the appearance of some other action.”

Fitzwater said the agencies were given until next Friday to submit their recommended trims for the 1988 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Even the Pentagon was not exempt from the reductions, he said.

‘Changes in Assumptions’

“The economic growth in the first six months has required some changes in the assumptions, as well as spending additions that have occurred in the first half of the year,” Fitzwater said. The lower growth will produce less in government income than was expected when the proposed budget was submitted to Congress five months ago.

Thus, Fitzwater said, “These new cuts will be necessary to get down to the (Gramm-Rudman) targets.”

Under the Gramm-Rudman measure, a seven-year plan of gradual deficit reductions designed to produce a balanced federal budget by 1991, the deficit in 1988 should be no greater than $108 billion. There is no penalty for exceeding the limit, but Fitzwater said the Administration remains committed to it.

Fitzwater said that, to help relieve the budget deficit, the Administration will consider ways of increasing the $22 billion in added revenue it has proposed to get through a variety of fees, including more admission charges to national parks.

Veto for Tax Increase

But Reagan once again asserted that he would veto any tax increase legislation handed him by Congress.

In speaking to a group of supporters invited to the White House, the President said:

“Any budget-busting spending legislation or tax increases sent down here from Capitol Hill are heading right back up Pennsylvania Avenue, stamped with the most respectable four-letter word I know, V-E-T-O.”

Meanwhile, congressional leaders continued work on a plan to pressure Reagan to accept a budget with higher taxes. The budget resolution adopted by the Democratic-controlled Congress calls for $19 billion in tax increases in fiscal 1988.

Defense, Domestic Cuts

Senate Budget Committee leaders Lawton Chiles (D-Fla.) and Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) will ask the Senate to approve a measure that would mandate automatic across-the-board cuts for defense and domestic spending if the Gramm-Rudman deficit targets are exceeded.