The Trump Budget Blues

The administration wants to destroy the nation's safety net, transfer public lands, and hike spending on the military industrial complex -- and Congress might just go for it

Moonrise from Bryce Canyon National Park. Jonathan P. Thompson photo.

🤯 Trump Ticker 😱

The Trump administration has sent its proposed fiscal year 2026 budget to Congress, and holy cow is it a doozy.

It would slash billions upon billions of dollars from environmental protection, public land management, foreign aid, health programs, science and research, housing, and education — usually because some of the money goes to “woke” or “DEI” programs or somehow funds “radical leftist ideology.” Yet it would increase Department of Homeland Defense spending by a whopping $44 billion, shovel an additional $113 billion into the military industrial complex, i.e. the Department of Defense, and spend more money to return to the moon and to put an American on Mars (seems like the perfect mission for Elon and Donny).

If it were implemented as proposed, the budget would tear apart the nation’s social safety net, set back science years, destroy America’s global standing, erode education, eviscerate the federal workforce, rob communities and low-income households of vital funding, gut dozens of federal agencies, generally weaken regulatory oversight, and even transfer some national park units to states.

Of course, a presidential budget is merely a wish list, a starting point for negotiations with Congress, which ultimately must sign off on it. And as we all know, the Republican-led Congress is independent and courageous and willing to stand up to Trump and put the kibosh on cuts and spending that are bad for the country, right?

Oh, what’s that? They are now the sycophant party? Oh… oh dear. We are in real trouble, aren't we?

Okay, in all seriousness, the cuts in this budget are so deep, and would gut programs so important to many Republican congress members’ constituents, that it’s hard to imagine that no one from the majority party would stand up and try at least to mitigate the madness. Then again, so far the House hasn’t lifted a finger to block the destructive and inefficient actions of DOGE or Trump’s misguided economy-wrecking trade wars. In just the latest action, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, fired 114 employees; thus far not a peep out of GOP Rep. Jeff Hurd.

And, even as we speak, House Republicans are pushing a budget reconciliation bill that’s every bit as loony as Trump’s budget (and is more or less modeled on Trump’s requests).

Of particular interest to the Land Desk and many of its readers will be the House Natural Resources Committee’s portion of the bill, which amounts to an oil and gas and mining corporation wish list. Among other things it would:

• Require quarterly oil and gas lease sales (already happening) and reinstate non-competitive oil and gas lease bidding (by reversing a Biden-era ban);

• Reduce oil and gas drilling royalty rates;

• Reissue Trump I-era oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and roll back Biden-era regulations on drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska;

• Require Interior to hold coal lease sales and rescind former coal leasing moratoria and reduce some coal royalty rates;

• Allow mining and drilling companies to pay a fee to expedite environmental reviews for developments on federal lands;

• Charge anyone protesting an oil and gas lease or permit at least $150;

• Block the BLM from implementing Biden-era Resource Management Plans for the:

  • Rock Springs Field Office in southwestern Wyoming, including the Red Desert;

  • Buffalo Field Office in Wyoming, which covers parts of the Powder River Basin;

  • Miles City Field Office in Wyoming;

  • North Dakota office;

  • Colorado River Valley and Grand Junction Field Offices in Colorado.

• Encourage more timber production from Forest Service and BLM lands.

The point being that so far, it seems that the House Republicans and the Trump administration are on the same page, at least when it comes to their priorities for public lands. So finding enough Republicans to stand up to Trump and tell him his budget proposals are wacky, at best, may be challenging. We’ll see.

Now for some of the data from Trump’s FY 2026 budget. I’m saving the public lands stuff for last, and will just give a summary of other departments just to give you a sense of what they’re trying to do. The - in front of the number is a cut; the + is for a spending increase.

STATE DEPT

• - $3.2 billion from international disaster assistance and humanitarian aid

• - $2.5 billion from State and USAID operations to ensure that “foreign aid spending is efficient and consistent with U.S. foreign policy under the America First agenda”

• - $1.2 billion from International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement

• - $1.6 billion from peacekeeping missions

• - $6.2 billion from global health programs and family planning

• - $1.6 billion from the Food for Peace program

DEPT of EDUCATION

• + $60 million for charter schools (to a total of $500 million)

• - $4.5 billion from Title I and K-12 programs.

• - $980 million from federal work study programs, saying it is a “handout to woke universities.” (I did work study in college, and it not only helped me pay tuition, but gave me valuable job skills.)

• - $910 million from Supplemental Educational Opportunity grants because they have been “used to fund radical leftist ideology”

• - $890 million from English language acquisition programs

• - $64 million from Howard University

• - $49 million from the Office for Civil Rights

HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

• + $500 million to Make America Healthy Again initiative.

• - $4 billion from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps folks pay their utility bills, saying it “is unnecessary because states have policies preventing utility disconnection for low-income households” and it “benefits states like New York and California.” They want to eliminate this program “and instead support low-income individuals through energy dominance.”

• - $770 million from Community Services Block Grant because they are “laden with equity-building and green energy initiatives” including using funds “to combine clean energy with affordable housing.” God forbid.

• - $315 million from preschool development grants (eliminates the program) because it has been used to “push DEI policies on to toddlers.”

• - $1.7 billion from the Health Resources and Services Administration

• - $3.6 billion from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention programs

• - $18 billion from National Institute of Health.

• - $1.1 billion from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

• + $9 million for drinking water programs. Sounds great until you see what they cut.

• + $27 million for tribes for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. Ditto.

• - $2.5 billion from Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Funds because “when it comes to water infrastructure, the States should be responsible for funding their own water infrastructure projects.”

• - $1 billion fROM categorical grants

• - $254 million for Hazardous Substance Superfund

• - $235 million from Office of Research and Development because it includes “radical environmental justice work, woke climate research”

• - $100 million from Environmental Justice

• - $90 million from Diesel Emissions Reduction Act grants

• - $100 million from the Atmospheric Protection Program

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

• + $43.8 billion (total $175 billion) to “enable DHS to fully implement the President’s mass removal campaign, finish construction of the border wall … enhance secret service operations…”

• - $646 million from Non-Disaster FEMA Grant Programs (falsely claiming that FEMA skipped over people who voted for Trump in the wake of Hurricane Helen. Oy.)

• - $491 million for Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency

• - $650 million for the Shelter and Services Program which “disburses grants used to facilitate mass illegal migration.”

• - $247 million for TSA screening.

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

• + $113 billion

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

• - $15.2 billion and canceling the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding, including “Green New Scam” funds committed to “build unreliable renewable energy, removing carbon dioxide from the air, and other costly technologies.”

• - $2.6 billion from Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy programs.

• - $1.1 billion from the Office of Science

• - $389 million from the Environmental Management program which performs activities at 14 active cleanup sites (including the Atlas uranium mill cleanup in Moab) and operates WIPP. It would maintains the Hanford site’s funding at 2025 levels, but reduces funding for cleanup at other sites.

• - $260 million from Advanced Research Project Agency

• - $408 million from the Office of Nuclear Energy

• - $270 million from the Office of Fossil Energy

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

• - $624 from Economic Development Administration and Minority Business Development Agency because they are “subsidies for idealogues (sic) who prioritize ‘racial equity’ and the radicalized climate agenda.”

• - $1.3 billion from NOAA operations, research and grants.

• - $209 million from NOAAs procurement of weather satellites and infrastructure

• - $325 million from the National Institutes of Standards and Technology because they fund awards for curricula that “advance a radical climate agenda”

HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

• - $26.7 billion from the state rental assistance block grant

• - $3.3 billion, by eliminating the Community Development Block Grant program

• - $1.3 billion to eliminate the HOME Investment Partnership Program

• - $479 million from the Native American programs for housing

• $532 million from Homeless Assistance Program consolidations

DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR

• - $609 million from the Bureau of Reclamation and the Central Utah Project, including reducing or eliminating funding for habitat restoration.

• - $900 million from the National Park Service, saying that NPS includes sites that are “not ‘National Parks’ in the traditionally understood sense.” (wtf is that supposed to mean?)

• -$158 million from the NPS Historic Preservation Fund

• - $73 million from NPS construction “This reduction complements the Administration’s goals of federalism and transferring smaller, lesser visited parks to state and tribal governments.”

• - $617 million from BIA programs the support tribal self-governance and tribal communities. Also terminates the Indian Land Consolidation Program. Reduces funding for programs that directly fund tribal operations in order to focus on “core priorities” such as law enforcement. And yet … they are also cutting …

• - $107 million fROM BIA Public Safety and Justice, which includes law enforcement.

• - $187 million from Bureau of Indian Education Construction account

• - $564 million from USGS surveys, investigations and research programs

• - $198 million from BLM conservation programs (Falsely claims that Biden and Obama-era national monument designations put areas off-limits to recreation, grazing, and hunting.)

• $170 million US FWS conservation grant programs

USDA

• + $15 million for Food Safety Inspection Service

• + $74 million to rental assistance grants

• - $602 million from National Institute of Food and Agriculture

• - $159 million from Agricultural Research Service

• - $754 million from Natural Resource Conservation Service operations

• - $16 million NRCS watershed programs

• - $721 million from USDA rural development programs

• - $358 million from Farm Service Agency

• - $392 million from National Forest system management, by reducing salaries and expenses by $342 million, and cutting another $50 million by eliminating the collaborative forest landscape restoration program

• - $391 million from Forest Service operations, including salaries and facility leases. And “increasing State authority over land management within their borders.” (Which sounds kinda like a land transfer to me).

• - $425 million from the Commodity Supplemental Food Program

NASA

• + $647 million for human space exploration

• - $2.3 billion for space science

NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

• - $3.5 billion for general research and education

• - $1.1 billion for NSF broadening participation programs

SMALL AGENCY ELIMINATIONS

• - $3.6 billion

---

🗺️ Messing with Maps 🧭

This is Plate 16 from “A Notice of the Ancient Ruins in Arizona and Utah Lying about the Rio San Juan” by W.H. Jackson. It’s from the Bulletin of the Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, published in 1876.