Presidential Budget Request Would Make Us Less Healthy, Safe and Secure

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Today President Trump announced his “skinny” presidential budget request, an outline of the Fiscal Year 2026 budget he would like Congress to pass.

“The president’s proposed budget is right in line with what corporate polluters and Project 2025 have been asking for: a complete dismantling of the federal guardrails and science that keep our air clean, our water safe, storm warnings showing up on our phones and affordable energy flowing into our households,” said Joanna Slaney, Environmental Defense Fund's Vice President for Political and Government Affairs. “These proposed cuts make us less healthy, safe and secure, while allowing corporate polluters to continue dirtying our air and water with vastly reduced oversight.”

The presidential budget request proposes cutting National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration funding by $1.5 billion, including over $200 million for weather satellites that help us know when storms and extreme weather will hit. FEMA disaster mitigation programs would be cut by over $600 million, leaving people out in the cold, possibly literally, when disasters inevitably strike.

The president’s budget request would slash Environmental Protection Agency funding by more than half, bringing agency funding below 1985 levels. The proposed cuts include $235 million from EPA’s science office, $100 million from the office working to protect communities disproportionately affected by pollution and $1 billion that supports states implementing environmental protections and programs that reduce pollution and keep communities healthy and safe.

It proposes an over 80% cut to the Department of Energy office that makes our power grid safer and more secure by increasing the amount of reliable energy available and reducing energy demand. The request would cut $5 billion from USDA programs to actively manage our forests and help rural communities and farmers build resilience to increasingly frequent extreme weather. It would cut $3.6 billion from the Centers for Disease Control, including eliminating the office that focuses on childhood lead poisoning prevention and asthma control.

These are just some of the egregious cuts in the proposed “skinny” budget.

The president’s budget request formally begins the annual federal budget process. The “skinny” presidential budget is an outline of each agency’s requested budget. It is typically followed by a more detailed budget request that lays out the administration’s priorities for federal spending. Congress is responsible for enacting spending legislation and can take these recommendations into account.