Trump’s First Budget Plan Would Take An Ax To The EPA’s Funds

The EPA would be among the hardest hit agencies targeted by Trump’s budget, which would also cut some $100 million in spending on research and global programs on combating climate change, according to Reuters; Trump and his EPA head, Scott Pruitt, are climate change deniers.

“We are encouraged to see that state health agency priorities, such as flexible funding to meet state and territorial public health needs and the public health Emergency Fund, are in the President’s Budget”, said Michael Fraser, executive director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, in an email. Though political wrangling means it’s unlikely the budget will pass in its current form, higher education leaders and the typically left-leaning college access community are warning that the budget signals the Trump administration will make it more hard for students to afford college and minimize debt. Most of the increase, $2.6 billion, would be to help kick-start Trump’s promised border wall. American taxpayers will, at least for now.

Of that, the administration wants $1.4 billion against ISIS for force protection, precision-guided munitions and countermeasures against ISIS’s lethal drone program.

Elsewhere in the budget, the request for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development see a 28 percent reduction that includes the proposed transformation of the foreign military financing program from grants to loans.

– The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund “PBS NewsHour”, “Antiques Roadshow” and the rest of PBS and NPR, would lose all its federal funding. Many Republicans are fighting back, with Sen. Rob Portman of OH were upset by cuts to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), have called for even more spending. To achieve the savings, the budget calls for a reduction in administrative costs, a “rebalance” of federal contributions to research and a major reorganization of the NIH’s institutes and centers to focus resources on the highest priority research and training.

Nor does it make predictions about deficits and the economy. The budget doesn’t specify how big this new fund would be. Trump has vowed not to cut Social Security and Medicare and is dead set against raising taxes.

Thursday’s proposal doesn’t spell out all details of the cuts. The plan would cut 3,200 jobs at the agency, eliminate a new plan for tighter regulations on power plants, and “zero out” programs to clean up the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay. For example, the budget proposes to eliminate AmeriCorps, a program that is explicitly created to help students pay for college or manage student debt.

“It is clear to virtually everyone that we have cut our military too much and that it has suffered enormous damage”, Republican Congressman Mac Thornberry said.

“This is not a take-it-or-leave-it budget”, he acknowledged. Perhaps more telling, however, was the reaction from Republicans, who gave it polite praise or none at all. “I look forward to reviewing this”, said House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.

“Bottom line here is the President proposes and Congress disposes”, he said, “and we will do our due diligence”.

Law enforcement agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation would be spared. Mr Trump particularly wants to swell the Army’s ranks and the budget “begins to rebuild the USA armed forces by addressing pressing shortfalls, such as insufficient stocks of critical munitions, personnel gaps, deferred maintenance and modernization, cyber vulnerabilities, and degraded facilities”. EPA climate change research would be eliminated. Popular EPA grants for state and local drinking and wastewater projects would be preserved, however, even as research into climate change would be eliminated.

The education budget also includes a $1 billion increase for Title I, a grant program that specifically targets schools serving disadvantaged students. It would increase defense spending, boost immigration enforcement and include in seed money for a wall along the southern border.

Some programs would tread water: WIC grants – money to states for health care and nutrition for low-income women, infants and children – are one example.

Trump wants to spend US$54 billion ($77b) more on defence, put a down payment on his border wall, and breathe life into a few other campaign promises. Subsidies for airlines serving rural airports in Trump strongholds would be eliminated. Money to Jordan, Egypt and other countries is still being evaluated, they said.