Washington D.C.— Congressman Eliot L. Engel, a leading member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, issued the following statement in response to President Trump’s budget proposal:
“In his speech before a joint session of Congress last month, President Trump declared, among other things, that he intended to work with members from both parties to invest in women’s health, protect seniors, promote clean air and clean water, make childcare accessible and affordable, and rebuild our nation’s infrastructure. However, today, the President presented a budget proposal that not only fails to do those things, it actively works against them by cutting vital domestic funding across the board.
“The President’s budget slashes domestic health funding – including that for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), jeopardizing life-saving research.
It also makes significant reductions in climate programs by zeroing out many of EPA’s emission reduction programs, scaling back Department of Energy’s efforts to accelerate clean energy technologies, and cutting NASA’s earth-monitoring programs. These spending reductions would be disastrous for our environment.
“The President’s budget also makes drastic cuts to the Labor Department, Education, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In fact, the only area that will see an increase in spending is defense, and while I do not oppose some increases to defense spending, it should not be at the expense of crucial domestic funding. Much of our domestic spending has already suffered significant budget reductions due to the ill-advised budget sequestration legislation, which I opposed in 2011. We cannot balance our budget on the backs of those in need, and we cannot allow this misguided proposal to direct the future of our nation.”
