Trump Budget Cuts Would Gut Our Ability to Protect Americans’ Health

“President Trump’s proposed 2018 budget is a full-scale attack on America’s most fundamental health and safety protections. It would gut our ability to keep our air and water clean, and would put the health of all Americans at risk.

“Today’s proposal would slash the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by 31 percent, even though it has already been cut to the bone – in real dollars, the agency’s budget is at almost its lowest level in 40 years. 

“President Trump’s proposed budget would hobble our efforts to reduce dangerous, and sometimes deadly, types of pollution – mercury, smog, carbon, and even lead. It would cut funding for popular programs that Americans rely on to keep their families safe, and would slash the grants that state and local governments need to protect their own citizens. For example, the program that warns us about “Code Red” days – when the air is so polluted that it is unsafe for children with asthma or seniors with heart conditions to be outdoors – would be cut by almost one-third. There would be about 30 percent less money to clean up the hundreds of thousands of hazardous waste sites in communities across America. It would even undermine the popular and successful Energy Star program that helps families buy energy-efficient products for their homes, and the budget would cut funding for the Department of Energy’s renewable energy and energy efficiency programs by an obscene 70 percent. The budget would also cut by 21 percent the ability of USDA to help farmers implement conservation practices while completely eliminating the ability of USDA to leverage private sector dollars to get conservation projects on the ground efficiently and effectively.

“President Trump has proposed this draconian budget in spite of the fact that 60 percent of American voters oppose cutting the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget – and 78 percent of Trump voters want the same or stronger clean air protections. Fouling our air and water will not make America great again. 

“President Trump’s budget shows a hostility to the programs that keep our air and water clean. The result will be more asthma attacks for our kids, more health problems for elderly Americans, and more pollution in our communities. We hope Members of Congress recognize the dangers of this budget proposal and choose to protect our bedrock environmental safeguards.” 

            - Fred Krupp, president, Environmental Defense Fund  

Read more about how EPA’s budget cuts could impact your state on our website