President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget, released Friday, proposes a 10% — $73 billion — reduction in non-defense spending “by reducing or eliminating woke, weaponized, and wasteful programs, and by returning State and local responsibilities to their respective governments.” This includes deep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as climate research and clean energy investments.
Below is a categorized breakdown of the impacts.
FEMA emergency management
- Cuts non-disaster grant programs by $1.3 billion, reducing state and local preparedness and funding.
EPA environmental programs
- Eliminates environmental justice grants.
- Cuts over $1 billion from EPA categorical grants, shifting compliance and program costs to state and local governments
- Eliminates water infrastructure grant programs, making states responsible for funding them.
- Provides $122 million to EPA for drinking water disaster response.
- Provides $14 million for web-based permitting tools such as NEPAssist.
Other federal agencies
- Eliminates Department of Interior renewable energy programs.· Eliminates Department of Interior WaterSmart grants for local ecosystem restoration projects, climate studies and water recycling plants.
- Cuts the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration budget by $1.6 billion, eliminating climate adaptation partnerships and resilience grants.
- Cuts $993 million from the National Institute for Science and Technology, including climate-adaption assistance.
- Cuts $449 million in Economic Development Administration climate resilience grants.
- Eliminates the Atmospheric Protection Program.
- Cuts $510 million from U.S. Department of Agriculture projects tied to green infrastructure and climate change.
Stakeholders in emergency management and environmental protection voiced strong concerns.
The International Association of Emergency Managers said in a statement it was “deeply alarmed” by the proposed reduction to FEMA preparedness grants. IAEM-USA President Josh Morton said in an emailed statement that the cuts would “effectively dismantle core programs,” including the Emergency Management Performance Grant, the Homeland Security Grant Program and the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant program. In February, a federal judge ordered FEMA to reverse its termination of $4.5 million in BRIC funding.
IAEM is urging Congress to fully fund FEMA’s preparedness grant programs.
“These programs form the backbone of our nation’s emergency management system, supporting state, local, tribal, and territorial agencies in building the capabilities needed to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters of all kinds,” Morton said, “The proposed reductions would significantly weaken national readiness at a time when communities are facing more frequent, complex, and costly threats.”
Katherine Tsantiris, director of government relations for the Ocean Conservancy, told Common Dreams that slashing NOAA’s budget would weaken weather forecasting and stall ocean research, “putting American lives, livelihoods, and global scientific leadership at risk.”
“This budget would slash the EPA budget by 52%, gutting the agency’s ability to protect the air our children breathe, the water our families drink, and the communities that already bear the worst of extreme weather and climate change,” Climate Action Campaign Director Margie Alt said in a statement. “This is not just a continuation of last year’s rollbacks. It is an escalation of the Trump administration’s Polluters First Agenda and their assault on public health safeguards.”
