Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump unveiled his $1.5 billion budget Thursday, which he has dubbed “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” but many people from the D.C. metro area argue the president’s budget will have disastrous impacts on the region.
Mr. Trump wants to increase defense spending by $54 billion and cut money given to other agencies, including the EPA, HHS, NIH and HUD, to make that possible.
“We are proposing a budget that will shrink the bloated federal bureaucracy, and I mean bloated, while protecting our national security,” said President Trump.
Mr. Trump’s budget would also eliminate federal jobs, but it doesn’t say which ones or how many.
“Increases in defense spending can cushion and offset some of the cuts that are gonna happen in the civilian side that will affect the Northern Virginia economy,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA). But it would be a mixed bag, according to Connolly, because shrinking the federal workforce would hurt federal employees in the D.C. area and contractors hired by the federal government.
Connolly said about 40 percent of federal contracting is on the civilian side, which would take the biggest hit if the president’s budget is approved.
Another massive cut that’s being condemned by many people in the region would eliminate the entire $73 million federal dollars that would go to the long-standing Chesapeake Bay cleanup efforts, which the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said are halfway completed.
“It’s an insult to all who have worked to try to save the Chesapeake Bay,” said Will Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
Since cleanup efforts started, water quality has improved, and dwindling fish populations have grown.
Discontinuing the cleanup work would hurt commercial fisherman who would have fewer crabs and fish to catch according to Baker. He added more beaches would be closed to swimming because of poor water quality, and the region would lose tourism dollars.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said the health of the Chesapeake Bay is vital for the region, and restoration efforts have bipartisan support.
“The Republican member of Congress who represents Maryland’s District 1, Andy Harris, we disagree on a lot of things, but he has said that he supports the Bay program,” said Van Hollen.
WMAL reached out to Harris for comment on the president’s budget, but we were told he didn’t have any time to talk to us.
Don Boesch, an honorary trustee with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt had committed to continuing the Chesapeake Bay restoration program. Boesch wanted to know why Pruitt went back on that promise.
Connolly stressed this is just a proposed budget, and he doubted Republicans in Congress would back such steep cuts.
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