By Timothy Gardner and Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House is proposing to slash a quarter of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s budget, targeting climate-change programs and those designed to prevent air and water pollution like lead contamination, a source with direct knowledge of the proposal said on Thursday.
President Donald Trump has long signaled his intention to reverse former Democratic President Barack Obama’s climate-change initiatives.
The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the budget proposal or its counter proposal.
State grants for lead cleanup, for example, would be cut 30 percent to $9.8 million.
Grants to help native tribes combat pollution would be cut 30 percent to $45.8 million.
An EPA climate protection program on cutting emissions of greenhouse gases like methane that contribute to global warming would be cut 70 percent to $29 million.
The proposal would cut funding for the brownfields industrial site cleanup program by 42 percent to $14.7 million.
The Republican-led Congress would have to approve any EPA cuts.
Congress would be unlikely to approve a proposal to cut all staff in a diesel emissions program, for example.
“I want you to know that with the White House and also with Congress, I am communicating a message that the brownfields program, the Superfund program and the water infrastructure grants and state revolving funds are essential to protect,” he said.