Editorial: Reject Trump cuts of EPA programs in state
One of the problems with the ongoing drama over Congress’ inability to pass a budget, its reliance on a string of continuing resolutions and the threat and consequences of government shutdown, is that the details of the budget could be lost in that toxic procedural morass.
We could be left to live with a literal toxic morass if the Trump administration is successful in pushing through budget cuts to the federal Environmental Protection Agency that would drain the agency of nearly a third of its current funding, support that is necessary to the EPA’s core mission of enforcement of environmental laws, cleanup of polluted sites and protection of clean air, water and land.
Barring yet another short-term fix, Congress must pass a budget by Feb. 8 or again risk shuttering government offices, perhaps longer than the three-day shutdown earlier this month.
Every community in every state of the nation relies on a vital EPA, but the agency’s work is especially obvious throughout Washington state, from removal of lead- and arsenic-contaminated soils caused by long-closed smelters in Everett and Tacoma, ongoing cleanup of radioactive waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and work to restore the health of Puget Sound and the southern Salish Sea and the endangered species that live there, including wild salmon and orca whales.
Last spring, the Trump administration suggested, among a host of proposed agency and department cuts, cutting 31 percent from the EPA and the layoffs of more than 3,200 employees, reducing the budget from $8.2 billion to $5.66 billion. While Trump’s stated goal was to shrink what he called a “bloated federal bureaucracy,” the truth is that the EPA in particular has performed its mission despite a slow bleed in real dollars over the past 40 years.
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