Sarbanes Statement on Trump Administration’s So-Called Budget

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman John Sarbanes (D-Md.) today released the following statement after President Donald Trump announced his 2018 budget proposal:

“To put it bluntly, the proposal put forward by President Trump is a hollow and half-baked attempt at policymaking. The President’s budget is thin on details and loaded with campaign rhetoric. Not only is it short on specifics, but it also makes indiscriminate and drastic cuts to a whole host of programs that millions of hardworking Americans depend on.

“In particular, I am deeply concerned by the proposal’s elimination of the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay program – a successful, multi-state initiative to restore one of our nation’s most important estuaries. In the past, the Chesapeake Bay program has enjoyed broad and bipartisan support, as well as buy-in from local and state governments throughout the mid-Atlantic region. By gutting the Bay program, the President is throwing decades of hard work and financial investment down the drain.

“Examples like this are littered throughout President Trump’s budget, including a $6 billion cut to the National Institute of Health; a $4 billion cut to Pell grants; the elimination of Community Development Block Grants; a 29 percent cut to the State Department; a 31 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency; and the threat to eliminate federal funding for the Purple Line in Maryland.

“I will firmly oppose the President’s ill-conceived proposal and continue to fight for a budget that values and benefits hardworking Americans in Maryland and around the country.”

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