05.30.25

Senator Murray on President Trump’s Budget Request

 

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement on the release of President Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget request, which proposes slashing critical investments in non-defense programs that matter immensely to families and our country’s competitiveness and future.

 

“It’s telling that President Trump has chosen to release his budget on a Friday night with no fanfare whatsoever. That’s probably because his budget would raise costs for working people, destroy basic services we all count on, and let our adversaries run circles around us—all while President Trump works to shower billionaires like himself in new tax breaks.

 

“For President Trump: it’s no billionaire left behind—and good luck to everyone else.

  

“This budget would outright eliminate programs that help working families afford the basics, gut investments in our students and schools, slash Pell Grants, and kick hundreds of thousands of Americans out of their homes. President Trump wants to let America’s small businesses go under, turn his back on our Tribes, and let trash pile up at our national parks. 

 

“America’s research enterprise has long been the envy of the world, driving awe-inspiring technological progress and producing medical treatments and cures that have saved millions of lives. But President Trump is now proposing to destroy it by nearly halving the NIH’s budget and gutting all kinds of cutting-edge scientific research. You might as well gift wrap the future and hand it to China.

 

“President Trump apparently wants to make our communities less safe and healthy—because he is now asking Congress to gut funding to prevent violent crime, crack down on drug trafficking, tackle the opioids and mental health crises, and protect people’s health.

 

“This president wants to explode the debt and deficit by trillions of dollars to help line billionaires’ pockets while kicking millions off their health care and shredding investments that matter most to families and our country’s success. 

 

“This is now the latest budget request in history, and remarkably, it is not even complete, because it still lacks all manner of essential details.

 

“This is a draconian proposal to hurt working people and our economy, and it is dead on arrival in Congress as long as I have anything to say about it. But this is just another reminder we need Republicans to join us to reject these reckless cuts, focus on the investments we actually need to make in our communities and security, and to finally force Trump to follow the law and end his devastating funding freeze.”

 

The president’s budget request comes weeks after he submitted a preliminary request, which contained exceptionally few details about critical programs and agencies. Over the last few weeks, many agency heads have shown up for budget hearings without a budget request to testify on.

 

The Trump administration says its proposal will cut domestic funding by $163 billion (-23%); however, the real cut to non-defense discretionary (NDD) spending may be far steeper.

 

Among other things, President Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget request:

 

GUTS INVESTMENTS IN STUDENTS: Slashes funding for the Department of Education by $12 billion (15%).  

  • Eliminates dozens of elementary and secondary education programs including dedicated funding for homeless students, rural schools, before and after-school programs, and evidence-based literacy education, as well as programs that give states and school districts flexibility to address needs of local schools. In their place, the proposal funds a new block grant that is a small fraction of the size of the programs it eliminates. The budget underscores that President Trump’s vision for returning education to the states means state and local taxpayers will pay more to support students and educators at their local schools thanks to major cuts in federal funding.    
  • Cuts the maximum Pell Grant by $1,685 (or 23%) and eliminates several higher education programs, including TRIO, GEAR UP, Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools (CCAMPIS), and more, which help Americans pursue a postsecondary education and further their careers. 
  • Cuts Department of Justice Stop School Violence grants by $7 million (9%) and the COPS School Safety Program by $18 million (33%), both of which help protect school children by improving security on school campuses.

 

KICKS AMERICANS OUT OF THEIR HOMES: Eviscerates the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with a 43.6% cut.  

  • Slashes HUD rental assistance programs by 42% while foisting responsibility over those programs onto state and local governments. Over 10 million Americans rely on HUD rental assistance, the vast majority of whom are seniors, people with disabilities, and children. This will rip the roofs off Americans’ heads and put even more families at risk of homelessness.  
  • Eliminates or cuts federal programs most targeted to build more affordable housing and address our country’s housing supply shortage, including a 34% cut to programs supporting Tribes. 
  • Eliminates the Community Development Block Grant that cities and towns across the country use to improve the quality of life for their citizens every day.
  • Consolidates homeless assistance grants and the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program into a formula program and limits the duration of support, all while reducing overall funding by $532 million, or 12%. 

 

MAKES AMERICA LESS HEALTHY: Slashes funding for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by $33 billion (-26%). 

  • NIH: Cuts funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by $18 billion or 43%—decimating funding for lifesaving medical treatments and cures. This includes cutting cancer research alone by $2.7 billion or 37%. 
  • CDC: Decimates funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by cutting $4 billion (a nearly 50% cut)—hollowing out the agency’s ability to save lives and protect Americans from health threats. 
  • ARPA-H: Cuts funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) by $555 million or 30%, reducing pivotal investments to transform medicine and health. 
  • ASPR: Cuts funding for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) by $360 million (35%), Project BioShield by $100 million (12%), and the Strategic National Stockpile by $230 million (23%)—programs that keep us prepared to respond to natural disasters and public health emergencies. 
  • SUBSTANCE USE & MENTAL HEALTH: Cuts $1 billion (roughly 15%) from substance use prevention and treatment and mental health programs, including eliminating dozens of programs that communities rely on. It consolidates three existing block grants into one and cuts total funding provided to states through them, all while eliminating the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration—the agency with expertise in tackling the substance use and mental health crises. 
  • CMS: Slashes funding for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) by $674 million. CMS helps ensure over 100 million Americans have access to affordable, high-quality health insurance by overseeing Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Affordable Care Act marketplaces. 
  • TITLE X: Eliminates the Title X program, which helps nearly 3 million patients get preventative care, birth control, cancer screenings, and more in every state. 
  • FDA: Cuts appropriated funding by $409 million (-11.4%) for the Food and Drug Administration, which will put Americans’ health and well-being at risk.  

 

PULLS THE RUG OUT FROM WORKING PEOPLE:

  • PRE-K: Eliminates all funding for Preschool Development Grants, which help states strengthen their early childhood education system and get parents the child care and pre-K they need.  
  • AMERICORPS: Eliminates Americorps, which enables over 200,000 Americans to help serve communities across the country, including by responding to natural disasters, supporting veterans, fighting the opioid epidemic, helping older Americans age with dignity, and working in our schools, educating and supporting students. President Trump has already illegally ripped Americorps apart. 
  • COMMUNITY SERVICES BLOCK GRANT: Eliminates all funding ($770 million) for community-based anti-poverty programs that help low-income Americans and families with basic needs. 

 

ABANDONS WORKERS: Slashes funding for DOL by $4.6 billion (35%).  

  • Proposes to "Make America Skilled Again" by cutting workforce training programs that help Americans develop skills and secure good-paying jobs, by roughly a third.  
  • Eliminates Job Corps and the Senior Community Service Employment Program. 

 

MAKES COMMUNITIES LESS SAFE: 

  • DOJ: Slashes the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) budget by at least $3.7 billion (10%).  
    • GRANTS: Guts funding for grants to help keep communities safe by over $1 billion (26%) while also proposing that the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), Office of Tribal Justice (OTJ), and Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) (a $128 million or 20% cut) all be “consolidated” under the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), a move that would greatly jeopardize resources to victims of crime and the integrity of each grant office. 
    • FBI: Cuts funding for FBI salaries and expenses by $545 million (5%), endangering Americans’ safety. 
    • DEA: Cuts funding for Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) salaries and expenses by $212 million (7%), weakening the agency’s capacity to crack down on drug trafficking. Also proposes shuttering major DEA offices in countries around the world, noting that those countries “are equipped to counter drug trafficking on their own.” 
    • ATF: Cuts funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF) salaries and expenses by $468 million (-29%) as part of the administration’s ongoing attempt to dismantle the agency in charge of enforcing our country’s gun laws. It also proposes ATF be “incorporated” into DEA, without any rationale or explanation for such a drastic move, which is no doubt aimed at dismantling this critical law enforcement agency. 
    • Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces: Eliminates funding for OCDETF, which is the federal government’s lead on its coordinated, multi-agency, intelligence-based, and prosecutor-led efforts to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the drug trafficking and money-laundering organizations primarily responsible for illegal drugs and drug-related violence throughout the U.S.
  • FEMA: Cuts FEMA non-disaster federal assistance by $610M, including counterterrorism grants, port security grants, public transit security grants, and education and training for emergency responders; and the outright elimination of grants for regional catastrophic preparedness, emergency food and shelter for the domestic homeless population, and public alert and warning (e.g., fires, tornadoes, manmade disasters) systems. 

 

DECIMATES SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH:  

  • NSF: More than halves funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF) with a $5.2 billion (57%) cut.  
  • DOE: Cuts funding for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science by $1.148 billion (14%), which would decimate America’s edge in essential scientific research that will drive future economic growth. 
  • NASA: Cuts NASA funding by $6 billion (24%), the largest single-year cut to NASA in U.S. history, which would mark an incredible retreat for American leadership and ambition in space. Terminates the Artemis Campaign to establish a human presence on the Moon after the Artemis III mission. Slashes funding for the Science Mission Directorate by $3.43 billion (47%), which would cancel numerous current and planned missions to better understand our universe, solar system, and Earth. 
  • EPA: Cuts EPA’s scientific arm by $255 million (34%), including research for air and energy to $33.5 million (65%) and $91.6 million for chemical safety research (28%). 

 

GUTS INVESTMENTS IN CLEAN AIR & WATER: Cuts funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by more than half. 

  • Abandons state and Tribal programs that build and maintain drinking water and sewer systems, starving states of longstanding federal funding provided to pay for states’ work enforcing federal laws, and decimating funding for cleaning up toxic Superfund sites. For instance, the State Revolving Funds, which provide low interest loans for these water projects, are funded at a fraction of the previous year with Clean Water State Revolving Fund at $155 million (a 90% cut) and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund at $150 million (a 87% cut). 
  • Core environmental programs are gutted, including $191.7 million for enforcement (49%) and $76 million for toxics risk review (33%). Superfund is cut by $255 million (47%), and Superfund cleanup projects are cut to $77 million (73%). 
  • The independent Chemical Safety Board is proposed to be eliminated—which investigates industrial chemical accidents, such as the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment. 

 

ABANDONS OUR NATIONAL PARKS & FORESTS: 

  • NATIONAL PARKS: Cuts $900 million (30%) from National Park Service operations. 
    • This cut would abandon national parks that the administration says should suddenly be transferred to the states, while providing no funding for states to manage massive new obligations that such a dramatic move would entail.  
    • This would incentivize states to sell off public lands to the highest bidder, threatening valued open space and areas of natural and historical value to local communities.  
  • FOREST SERVICE: Cuts $1.386 billion (22%) from the Forest Service. 
    • This would slash grant funding for state and tribal forest health and wildfire risk reduction, volunteer fire departments, forestry and wildfire research and innovation, hiking trails and recreational opportunities, and much more.  
    • The proposal would cut at least 2,000 National Forest System staff positions, which will severely harm the Trump administration’s stated goals of improving forest management and increasing domestic timber production. 

 

LEAVES FARMERS BEHIND: 

  • Guts funding for agricultural research and extension activities, which are critical to ensuring American agriculture is competitive with the rest of the world and provides key resources to help farmers and ranchers prepare and adapt in an uncertain environment. 
  • Eliminates all discretionary funding for voluntary technical assistance for producers interested in implementing conservation practices on their farms. 
  • Zeroes out foreign food aid that supports American farmers and is a lifeline for people living in extreme poverty across the world. 

 

HURTS RURAL AMERICA: 

  • Slashes investments in core Rural Development programs by $710 million, including investments in safe drinking water, affordable housing, and resources to bolster the rural economy.  
  • Cuts $550 million in already-appropriated funding to connect rural Americans to the internet through the Digital Equity Act. 

  

FORCES FAMILIES AND SENIORS TO GO HUNGRY:  

  • WIC: Cuts average monthly fresh fruit and vegetable benefits by $10.55 for participants in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program at a time when the cost of fresh food is at all-time highs.  
  • CSFP: Eliminates the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides food assistance to low-income individuals 60 years of age and older to supplement diets and address potential nutrient deficiencies. 
  • CHILD NUTRITION: Eliminates funding for Child Nutrition Trainings, Farm to School Grants, and School Meal Equipment Grants, which will hurt schools' ability to feed children nutritious food during the school day.   

 

WORSENS WEATHER FORECASTING: Guts funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) by $1.5 billion, which would eliminate all manner of programs that create good jobs, help local economies, and support ocean research, health, and coastal resilience.  

  • Proposes a reckless $209 million cut for NOAA’s weather satellites. 
  • These satellites play a critical role in ensuring Americans have accurate weather forecasting and will result in a gap in observations when the current satellites retire early in the next decade. 

 

RAISES ENERGY COSTS: 

  • LIHEAP: Eliminates the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps 6 million American households heat and cool their homes. 
  • DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY: Slashes funding for the Department of Energy overall by $4.7 billion (9.4%).  
    • Guts funding for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy programs by $2.572 billion (74%).  
    • Proposes to rescind $15.25 billion from Bipartisan Infrastructure Law energy programs, which will raise energy costs for American consumers by halting vital innovation and energy projects. 

 

ABANDONS SMALL BUSINESSES:  

  • Slashes funding for SBA’s Entrepreneurial Development Programs by $167 million, proposing the elimination of nearly all programs, including programs that support veterans as they work to start and grow a small business.  
  • Eliminates $291 million in funding for all current Community Development Financial Institutions financial assistance awards, which help leverage private capital to support the development of child care centers, housing, health care facilities, and small businesses. Since 2010, CDFIs have financed over 1.3 million businesses and 557,000 affordable homes. 

 

WEAKENS U.S. COMPETIVENESS & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:  

  • Cuts funding for the Department of Commerce by $1.9 billion (18%) and outright eliminates the Economic Development Administration (EDA), which helps economically distressed communities across America get ahead. 
  • Eliminates the Minority Business Development Agency, the lead federal agency dedicated to assisting these business enterprises compete.  
  • Eliminates the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, which supports small- and medium-sized manufacturers in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.  
  • Eliminates funding to 27 states by zeroing out funding for 6 of 7 regional commissions, which provide grants in economically distressed communities for disaster mitigation, opioid crisis support programming, workforce training, and much more. 

 

UNDERMINES AMERICA’S GLOBAL LEADERSHIP: Guts funding for the State Department and America’s international security, economic, and humanitarian assistance programs by $31.2 billion (48%).  

  • The United States already spends less than 0.2% of our GDP on diplomacy and foreign assistance, which is less than a third of the percentage we spent under President Reagan’s peace through strength approach, and Trump is proposing to halve these critical investments. 
  • Cuts funding for lifesaving and other humanitarian assistance by $4.7 billion (54%), which will lead to preventable deaths and suffering across the globe, and threaten Americans’ safety and well-being by undercutting our efforts to stop disease outbreaks and prevent conflict. A cut of this magnitude will also lead to more migration of people fleeing poverty, conflict, and natural disasters. 
  • Cuts funding for the International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement account by $1.3 billion (91%), which helps prevent human trafficking, stop drug trafficking, and much more, with direct implications for American communities. 
  • Cuts foreign military financing for Jordan and Taiwan by more than half while eliminating support for all other U.S. allies and partners, including Ukraine. 
  • Slashes economic growth and development funding across multiple agencies and accounts by $6 billion (67%) and proposes the final dissolution of USAID. 
  • Guts funding for bipartisan global health initiatives, including PEPFAR, by $6.2 billion (62%). 
  • Reneges on our treaty dues for the United Nations (UN), U.N. Peacekeeping operations, and a majority of other international organizations.  
  • Guts independent agencies like the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which have long had bipartisan backing.  
  • Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR): Eliminates all funding for the resettlement of refugees in the United States.  

 

GUTS INVESTMENTS IN WATERWAYS:

  • Cuts funding for the Army Corps of Engineers by $2 billion (23%), slashing funding used to maintain our nation’s ports and harbors. 
  • Cuts funding for the Bureau of Reclamation by $600 million (34%), gutting investments in key restoration projects. 

 

WEAKENS OUR NATION’S CYBERSECURITY: 

  • Reduces the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) workforce by over 1,000 positions (30%), gutting its capacity to fulfill its cyber defense and critical infrastructure protection missions.
  • $550 million cut to CISA, including the elimination of all election security programs.

 

ZEROES OUT FUNDING FOR LIBRARIES, MUSEUMS, PUBLIC MEDIA, & THE ARTS: 

  • Eliminates funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the support it provides to libraries and museums throughout the United States. 
  • Completely eliminates the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which provide funding for every state and every congressional district for cultural economic development and the creative economy. 
  • Eliminates funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, ending support for more than 1,500 local public television and radio stations. 
  • Eliminates funding to develop the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino, as required by law, and dissolves support for the Anacostia Community Museum, which was built by the Smithsonian and has operated as one of its 21 museums for nearly 60 years. 

 

PADS THE WHITE HOUSE BUDGET: While President Trump and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought request draconian cuts to all manner of essential programs and services working people count on, they are requesting a 13.3% increase for OMB expenses, including additional full time employees—while they fire thousands across the federal government. 

   

FUNDS DOGE: The request includes $10 million for the U.S. DOGE Service, supporting 30 full-time employees to continue Elon Musk’s slash and burn campaign to decimate government well after his departure as a Special Government Employee. 

 

WEAKENS OVERSIGHT: The request proposes major cuts to many Offices of Inspector General across the federal government—the internal agency watchdogs tasked with rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse. This includes inspectors general for the Department of Justice (30% cut), National Science Foundation (26% cut), Department of Defense (7% cut), Department of Agriculture (10% cut), Department of Housing and Urban Development (6.5% cut), among others. 

 

###