Trump’s 2020 budget proposal is a gut-punch to the environment

No surprise here: President Trump snubbed environmental protections in his latest budget proposal, choosing instead to fund a widely condemned border wall and ramp up military spending. Released on Monday, the fiscal year 2020 budget suggests a drastic 31 percent cut to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency—the largest reduction across any one federal agency. It also downgrades funding for clean energy, habitat restoration efforts in the Great Lakes, research grants at the National Science Foundation, and a United Nations–led effort to help developing countries cut greenhouse gas emissions. But there's still hope: Congress is likely to reign in Trump’s worst impulses and renegotiate the terms before allowing an exceptionally bad budget to pass—just like it did last year.