Trump budget proposes big changes in Forest Service, Interior spending

By Rob Chaney, Missoulian.com

Montana’s two biggest federal players – the Forest Service and National Park Service – would see deep cuts and big changes under President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal 2018 budget.

The Department of Agriculture would absorb a 21 percent, $4.7 billion reduction. The Department of the Interior, headed by former Montana congressman Ryan Zinke, would see a 12 percent, $1.5 billion cut.

Trump’s 62-page budget document does not provide detailed spending changes, but its narrative highlights certain priorities. Both departments commit to fully funding wildland firefighting through the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management at 100 percent of their respective 10-year averages. That works out to $2.4 billion for the Forest Service, while BLM’s figure was not specified.

Both agencies would see reduced funding for new federal land acquisitions through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a program that’s been consistently supported by Montana’s congressional delegation. The budget document was unclear whether the $120 million in offshore oil royalties that now go to LWCF would be diverted to other areas or shifted to maintaining and investing in existing parks, refuges and public lands.

The changes to the conservation fund drew widespread criticism from outdoors organizations in and around Montana. Backcountry Hunters and Anglers President Land Tawney in Missoula called the proposal “unacceptable.”

“Our federal workers already are operating under anemic budgets that preclude investments necessary to enhancing public lands management and expanding front-line staff in our communities,” Tawney wrote in an email on Thursday.

“President Trump’s proposal sets them up for failure by denying them the tools they need to do their jobs and serve the American people. It also would erode proven success stories like the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which has done more than any other federal program to conserve important landscapes and expand public opportunities to access and enjoy them.”

Elsewhere in the federal budget proposal, the Department of Transportation calls for Amtrak funding to be reduced for long-distance train services, “which have long been inefficient and incur the vast majority of Amtrak’s operating losses.”

That likely refers to the Empire Builder route through Montana, which passes under Glacier National Park’s southern border. It would also eliminate the Essential Air Service to rural airports, saving $175 million, and take out $499 million from the TIGER discretionary grant program, which recently paid $4.5 million toward the Bitterroot Trail along Highway 93 between Missoula and Lolo. It would invest more than $1 billion at the Commerce Department’s National Weather Service.

The Agriculture budget would also reduce funding for USDA statistical capabilities and Service Centers while encouraging “private sector conservation planning.” It plans to save $95 million from the Rural Business and Cooperative Service and eliminates the International Food for Education program, stating it “lacks evidence that it is being effectively implemented to reduce food insecurity.”

It would eliminate $498 million in duplicative USDA water and wastewater loans and grants, saying rural communities could be served by private-sector financing or other federal investments such as the EPA’s state revolving funds. However, the EPA has its own budget slated for a 31 percent, $2.6 billion cut.

The Trump plan would cut the EPA budget by 31 percent, from $8.1 billion to $5.7 billion, resulting in the layoffs of 3,200 staffers.

“The president wants a smaller EPA. He thinks they overreach,” said Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney.

“More than 50 EPA programs” would be eliminated entirely, Mulvaney said. All of those were not immediately identified, but they include the EPA’s environmental justice office; programs to help cities and states combat air pollution; and the EnergyStar program, which helps consumers reduce energy consumption and save money.

Of particular consequence to Montana is the plan to severely cut Superfund work. The network of mining and smelting-caused damage areas along the Clark Fork drainage in southwest Montana is considered collectively the largest Superfund site in the nation.

The plan would also discontinue funding for the Clean Power Plan. The Obama plan was an effort to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

EPA officials at both the state level and the Region 8 office in Denver referred questions about specific Montana impacts of the cuts to EPA headquarters, which did not reply Thursday. Some have speculated that Region 8 itself might be eliminated.

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