Trump pushing massive budget and staff cuts at EPA

Trump pushing massive budget and staff cuts at EPA

A poll out today from Morning Consult/Politico finds that a majority of Americans agree that Donald Trump is delivering on promises he made during the campaign. One of those promises that is now taking shape is the plan to slash the budget and staff of the bloated and — in the view of many — superfluous Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Trump will ask Congress to cut the EPA’s budget 24%, or nearly $2 billion, according to sources familiar with the budget plans.

The White House sent draft budget plans to agency heads Monday, detailing billions of dollars in cuts to a wide range of federal programs. Cuts to EPA and other agencies will fund a $54 billion increase in defense spending.

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A source informed of the budget plans told E&E News that the president will push for a nearly $2 billion cut to EPA’s $8.1 billion budget. A source told Politico Trump also “proposed reducing EPA’s 15,000-strong workforce to 12,000, a level not seen since the mid-1980s.”

“You’re going to have to make reductions,” Myron Ebell, director of global warming and energy policy at the libertarian Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

“There’s going to have to be some serious thought here,” said Ebell, who headed Trump’s EPA transition team. “They’re going to have to figure out to make these cuts.”

Trump’s plan to cut EPA’ budget dramatically mirrors recommendations given to him by the agency transition team. That plan advised cuts outside of state and tribal grants, which make up about 43% of EPA’s budget.

In that case, EPA will have to trim 24% from its $4.6 billion budget for federal programs, payroll and contracts. That‘s effectively a 42% budget cut once state and tribal grants are excluded.

Ebell said Trump will likely cut EPA climate programs, as he promised on the campaign trail, but could also end up laying off agency staffers in D.C. or reduce the size of field offices. Top officials told Axios to expect “massive, transformational cuts, particularly to climate-change programs.”

“Businesses have to do this all the time,” Ebell said.“The federal government never has to undergo this market discipline.”

Trump promised to abolish Barack Obama’s “Climate Action Plan,” refocusing the EPA towards clean air and water regulations.

EPA had more than 15,300 employees and a budget of more than $8.1 billion in 2016. About half of EPA staff work at regional offices across the country, even though more than 90% of EPA programs are administered by state agencies.

The Trump administration has said the budget figures sent to agency heads is not the full budget. The White house hopes to have a full budget put together by May

“This is not a full-blown budget,” Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, told reporters Monday.

Mulvaney stressed current agency budgets plans were top-line numbers and don’t include entitlements or other programs that will be addressed later.

Mulvaney said the budget reflected Trump’s promises of rebuilding the military, securing the border, taking care of veterans and increasing school choice, adding, “We are taking his words and turning them into policies and dollars.”

The EPA did not respond to TheDCNF by the time of publication.

This report, by Michael Bastasch, was cross-posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

LU Staff

LU Staff

Promoting and defending liberty, as defined by the nation’s founders, requires both facts and philosophical thought, transcending all elements of our culture, from partisan politics to social issues, the workings of government, and entertainment and off-duty interests. Liberty Unyielding is committed to bringing together voices that will fuel the flame of liberty, with a dialogue that is lively and informative.

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