EPA takes the biggest hit in Trump budget

Although government agencies and departments will see cuts, Trump confirms that his plan will not only work to the benefit of the American people but will guide the agencies to “achieve greater efficiency and to eliminate wasteful spending in carrying out their honorable service to the American people”.

“But it is encouraging, and we’re hopeful”, said Joy Ilem, legislative director for Disabled American Veterans.

To put in perspective the sacrifice of so many functional, low-dollar domestic programs on the altar of more war spending, consider this: An internal Pentagon study estimates that the military wastes $125 billion per year on unnecessary bureaucracy.

“Environmental Protection Agency: We absolutely do not need this”.

Labor Department: $2.5 billion, or 20.7%. “Our community will be hit hard by the proposed elimination of help for households in immediate danger of being without heat and Community Development Block grants that support the production of affordable housing and the revitalization of our Main Streets”.

The Energy Department’s Office of Science would see its $5 billion budget cut by almost 20 percent, while the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy would see its $300 million budget zeroed out.

Critics are appalled. “By increasing military spending by $54 billion while cutting spending on civilian diplomacy and assistance, the Trump administration is militarizing foreign aid”, charged Adam Isacson, senior associate for defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America.

Congress faces an April 28 deadline to approve a budget for fiscal-year 2018, which begins October 1. This, conveniently, is also what the budget does. Fortunately, Congress can choose to completely scrap the plan and enact their own budget, but if nothing else, this budget gives us a look at President Trump’s vision for the country.

The plan cuts funding for the massive Chesapeake Bay cleanup project down to zero, which had been receiving $73 million each year.

“Overall, funding has to match the increased demand VA has been seeing over the last couple of years”, Ilem said.

“We must go back to the America that was great, when the air was full of coal and danger and the way you could tell if the air was breathable was by carrying a canary around with you at all times, perched on your leathery, coal-dust-covered finger”, she wrote.

A summary of the Trump administration’s EPA budget plan said: “Consistent with the President’s America First Energy Plan, the budget reorients the EPA’s air program to protect the air we breathe without unduly burdening the American economy”.

In agriculture, loan and grant programs for water and sewer systems would be eliminated.

The National Institutes of Health: Funding cuts for NIH make up more than a third of the total HHS budget reductions.