February, 09 2020, 11:00pm EDT
Trump's Budget Is Comically Bad for Food and Water Justice
Today, President Trump will release his proposal for the fiscal-year 2021 budget. Included in the projected proposal is a drastic 26.5% cut for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an 8% cut for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and overall a strong priority for defense while slashing safety net programs.
In response, Food & Water Action Executive Director Wenonah Hauter issued the following statement:
WASHINGTON
Today, President Trump will release his proposal for the fiscal-year 2021 budget. Included in the projected proposal is a drastic 26.5% cut for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an 8% cut for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and overall a strong priority for defense while slashing safety net programs.
In response, Food & Water Action Executive Director Wenonah Hauter issued the following statement:
"Trump's budget is an arrogant combination of irresponsible safety net cuts and negligence. EPA and USDA's budgets have been insufficient for decades, and now Trump envisions minimal or diminished spending for both in the face of a water, food, and climate crisis.
"He proposes gutting 28% from the State Revolving Fund programs, the main source of federal support for our nation's aging water and sewer systems and wants to eliminate funding for an array of grants and programs from safe water of small and disadvantaged communities to beaches protection while zeroing out funding for environmental justice enforcement.
"Just as bad, Trump calculates chump change should be enough for the Food and Drug Administration to stop the continuous slews of food recalls, while also proposing the same tired idea of eliminating government funding for meat, poultry, and egg products inspection in future years and replacing it with industry user fees that make USDA inspectors beholden to industry for their paychecks. He's also moving forward with his ill-conceived, and widely contested New Swine Inspection System (NSIS) that would privatize inspection functions on hog slaughter lines.
"At a time when we need more funding than ever for clean air protections and food safety measures, this budget is tragically comedic. Congress must reject Trump's astounding public safety cuts to protect our water, food, and future."
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
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As Republicans on Wednesday set their sights on a key seat opening up in the U.S. House of Representatives, the chamber's senior Democrat on the congressional Joint Economic Committee put out a blistering takedown of a top GOP budget proposal for the next fiscal year.
Congressman Don Beyer (D-Va.) took aim at the 180-page "Fiscal Sanity to Save America" plan released last week by the Republican Study Committee (RSC)—which includes about 80% of GOP House members—following proposals from Democratic President Joe Biden and House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas).
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RSC proposals to "dramatically weaken healthcare," Beyer noted, include turning Medicare into a voucher plan and rolling back Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provisions that cut costs for seniors; repealing tax subsidies for the Affordable Care Act and the law's protections for people with preexisting conditions; and transforming Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program into block grants to states.
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The RSC advocates ending green tax credits from the IRA and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act as well as slashing money for Community Oriented Policing Services and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The committee also calls for permanently lowering taxes for the ultrarich, indexing capital gains taxes to inflation, repealing the estate tax, rolling back the IRA's corporate alternative minimum tax, and eliminating funding intended to help the Internal Revenue Service catch wealthy tax cheats.
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Biden and the divided Congress this past weekend narrowly avoided a government shutdown by passing a long-delayed spending package. Fiscal year 2025 is set to begin in October, setting up another election-year fight over funding.
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A recently formed group of climate activists on Wednesday shut down entrances to Amazon's downtown Seattle headquarters to protest the tech titan's plans to link some of its data centers with an upgraded fracked gas pipeline.
Members of the Troublemakers—who describe themselves as "an ever-growing community of people who are committed to taking action for life on Earth"—blockaded the doors to the Day 1 Building on 7th Ave. in opposition to Amazon Web Services' (AWS) plan to connect three data centers near Boardman, Oregon to TC Energy's Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) XPress Project.
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The group wrote in a March 19 letter to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy:
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Charlie Fisher, state director of Oregon PIRG, said the law means Oregon is "moving forward on an innovation even more critical than a new gadget: the right to fix our electronic devices."
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The Right to Repair Act, which will go into effect on January 1, 2025, was supported by roughly 100 small businesses that provide repairs across the state, as well as recycling nonprofit organizations.
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State Rep. Courtney Neron (D-26) cited a letter from the Federal Trade Commission when she told her colleagues that Apple's parts paring requirements "drive up the price that consumers must pay to fix a device and cause consumers to purchase a new device before the end of its useful life."
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