To prepare for more federal government spending cuts, Maryland lawmakers plan to trim as much as $500 million from next fiscal year’s budget — on top of the roughly $2 billion in cuts Gov. Wes Moore has already proposed.

“We do believe in the next couple of weeks we will get a better picture as to the extent of the honestly disastrous cuts that are likely going to be shifted to the states ahead of the March 14 shutdown date,” Senate President Bill Ferguson told reporters Friday.

Cuts to Medicaid, education spending, disaster relief and federal contractors are among the federal spending cuts that could have the biggest impact on Maryland’s budget, Ferguson said.

“We know that something is coming,” Ferguson said. “We don't know the extent to which, and so that’s where we have to look at additional cuts to try and save money now.”

Senate Budget and Taxation Committee Chair Guy Guzzone said the legislature’s budget committees will look for an additional $200 to $500 million in budget cuts in the next couple weeks. At this point, he said, he doesn’t know where the savings will come from, but he has ideas of what he does not want to cut.

“Anything that hits to the basics of life for individuals, whether it's, is there some poverty-related dollars that we want to protect to ensure that people can have at least a life in their circumstances that there are now,” he said. “There are some mental health stuff that we think we have to do because of the increased needs in mental health right now.”

Guzzone said the legislature is delaying its normal timeline for approving next fiscal year’s budget by about six days, with the hope that the extra time clarifies some of the coming federal budget cuts.