White House Aims to Slash Major EPA Programs, Fire 20 Percent of Staff

September 30, 2020 0 By JohnValbyNation

The White House is aiming to cut dozens of major EPA programs and to slash one-fifth of all staff positions within the agency, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Many predicted massive EPA cuts would be required to fund President Donald Trump’s enormous increase in military spending, and the White House plan reviewed by the Post apparently fulfills those fears: the EPA’s budget will be slashed by $2 billion, the newspaper reports.

The Post described the plan:

In essence, the plan appears to follow a budgetary blueprint (pdf) published by the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing, Koch brothers-funded think tank.

“The authors of the Heritage blueprint state upfront that they don’t believe climate change is a problem—and hence recommend eliminating virtually everything the EPA does on the issue,” observed Vox‘s Brad Plumer.

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