The Office of Management and Budget is deciding how best to gouge the Environmental Protection Agency's budget, a result of President Trump's proposal to increase defense spending while cutting back on discretionary spending elsewhere, The Washington Post reports. While the specific decisions are not yet final, the Office of Management and Budget is reportedly looking to reduce EPA staff by one-fifth in the first year, from 15,000 to 12,000, and to possibly cut the agency's Office of Research and Development by as much as 42 percent, multiple officials briefed on the plans revealed.
"These cuts, if enacted by Congress, will rip the heart and soul out of the national air pollution control program and jeopardize the health and welfare of tens of millions of people around the country," said S. William Becker, the executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies.
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