Washington, D.C. — The Trump administration’s proposed fiscal year 2018 budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) dumps the work of 23 eliminated programs into the laps of state environmental agencies while significantly shrinking the grant funding that helps them fulfill their missions, according to a new analysis released today by the Center for American Progress.
“President Donald Trump’s math doesn’t add up. His budget for the EPA asks cash-strapped state environmental agencies to do $600 million more work with $600 million less funding,” said Alison Cassady, director of domestic energy and environment policy at CAP and co-author of the analysis. “If enacted, this budget would blow a billion-dollar hole in state environmental agencies’ budgets and put the nation’s air and water quality at risk.”
CAP examined the list of 46 programs targeted for elimination in the EPA budget proposal. For 23 of these discarded programs, the EPA justifies the decision to eliminate them by saying that the states will pick up the slack. The EPA required $624 million and 250 full-time employees to implement these programs, which the agency says it “will encourage states to continue.” At the same time, the EPA budget slashes state and tribal assistance grants by $678 million.
Click here to read “Trump’s Hypocritical Budget for the Environmental Protection Agency Would Overwhelm States” by Myriam Alexander-Kearns and Alison Cassady.
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, contact Allison Preiss at [email protected] or 202.478.6331.