PROPOSAL AGAIN TARGETS EPA FOR DEEP BUDGET CUTS
calls for $200 billion over the next decade in new spending to improve the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
Presidential budgets are little more than vision statements even under normal circumstances, given that Congress controls the federal purse strings and may disregard the wishes of the Oval Office’s occupant.
That is even more true this year, after congressional leaders in both parties essentially went around Trump to strike their own budget deal that bore little resemblance to the one he was drawing up. Lawmakers spread federal dollars around in the kind of legislative horse trading that the president has often decried as a symptom of “the swamp.”
Trump’s plan includes a request for $85.5 billion in discretionary funding for veterans’ medical care and $13 billion in new spending to tackle opioid abuse through prevention, treatment and recovery support services as well as mental health programs.
Trump’s second federal spending plan also proposes steep cuts for the Environmental Protection Agency, despite Congress’ rejection of a similar plan last year to dramatically shrink the agency’s budget.
The fiscal 2019 budget blueprint would pare the EPA by $2.8 billion, or 34 percent, while eliminating virtually all climate change-related programs. It also would cut the agency’s Office of Science and Technology nearly in half, to $489 million from its current $762 million.
In outlining the budget, the administration said EPA was refocusing on what it called “core activities” and eliminating “lower priority programs.” That list includes a program to promote partnerships with the private sector to tackle climate change; environmental education training; and an effort to protect marine estuaries.
The White House estimated cutting those programs and others would save taxpayers $600 million compared to 2017 levels.