May 24, 2017 - President Donald Trump yesterday laid out his fiscal 2018 priorities in a $4.1 budget request, which includes $3.6 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years in an attempt to balance the budget by 2027. The A New Foundation for American Greatness document lays out $668 billion in defense spending and $479 billion for non-defense programs.

The spending figures for each agency and programs prioritizes issues touted by the president on the campaign trail and since taking office. President Trump does not offer any new details on plans for a Republican overhaul of the federal tax code. The White House does assume that whatever deal Congress can reach on taxes will not add to the federal deficit over the next decade.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): The Trump administration's proposed budget calls for slashing EPA's funding for fiscal 2018 by 31 percent to $5.7 billion.  The budget would eliminate 3,200 of the agency’s 15,000 jobs. 

The budget would reduce or eliminate several major EPA programs. It would provide about $1.8 billion for agency environmental programs and management in fiscal 2018, a decrease of more than $800 million. That includes a total of $310 million for Clean Air Act and climate change regulatory activities.  The budget would discontinue funding of the Clean Power Plan, climate change research and partnership programs.  Federal support for air quality management, a category that includes EPA's air toxics program and support for development of state implementation plans, would be chopped 24 percent, from $132 million to $100.4 million.

Further, the budget supports the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers work to implement the President’s Executive Order directing the Administrator of the EPA and the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works to review the 2015 Clean Water Rule and publish for notice and comment a proposed rule rescinding or revising the rule, as appropriate and consistent with law.

Department of State: The President’s budget offers no money for the Green Climate Fund, and proposes reducing other international environmental assistance.  The budget ends funding for the Clean Technology Fund, intended to help developing nations develop low-carbon and energy-efficiency technology, and the Strategic Climate Fund, which aims to scale up more experimental approaches to dealing with climate change.  It further reduces payments to the Global Environment Facility to $102 million, about a third less than it sent this year.

Department of Interior: The White House has requested $11.7 billion for the Department of Interior (DOI) in fiscal 2018, an 11 percent decrease from current funding.  DOI would be blocked from spending money on any new rulemakings for the greater sage grouse or the Columbia Basin sage grouse in the Northwest.

The fiscal 2018 budget request for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is $1.1 billion, a decrease of $152.7 million below 2017.  The budget includes an $8 million program increase in the Coal Management program to support BLM staff capacity to meet additional coal application processing and inspection requirements, processing and approving exploration licenses and recovery and protection plans, and conducting lease sale fair market value determinations.

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) would see its regulation and technology funding reduced by ten percent to $109.4 million.  The agency would lose 38 full-time jobs between fiscal 2017 and 2018, leaving 383 full-time staffers.  The budget includes $60.2 million for State and tribal regulatory grants, a decrease of $8.3 million below 2017.  The proposal also would slash abandoned mine land (AML) reclamation fund expenses to $20 million, down from $27 million in 2016.  It would eliminate the $90 million Appalachian AML Economic Development Grants pilot program Congress began last year.

For the USGS, the budget proposes $922 million in funding, down $163 million from fiscal 2017 funding.

Department of Energy (DOE): The White House spending proposal requests $28.0 billion for FY 2018, a reduction of $2.7 billion.  Fossil Energy Research and Development would see a cut of more than half, from more than $600 million to $280 million.   In its budget document, DOE said the proper federal role on fossil energy should be supporting early-stage research and development.  Additionally, the Department proposes to initiate consolidation of sites at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) fossil research laboratories. 

Department of Labor (DOL): The FY 2018 request for DOL is $9.7 billion, $4 billion or 29 percent below FY17.  The $375.2 million proposed for MSHA would be an increase from $373.8 million in FY17.  The budget envisions 2,110 employees working at MSHA, a reduction of 2 percent.   Relatedly, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Disease Control National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) FY 2018 budget includes $200 million, a decrease of $135 million or 40 percent below FY 2017.

Army Corps of Engineers (Corps): The budget would reduce the Army Corps of Engineers' budget by more than 16 percent to $5 billion.  The budget proposes to reform the laws governing the Inland Waterways Trust Fund by establishing a fee to increase the amount paid by commercial navigation users of inland waterways.  

Congress is expected to take up work on its fiscal 2018 funding bills shortly, including holding hearings with Trump administration officials on its budget proposal.