Commentary: Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-N.M.), ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, issued the following statement on President Trump’s budget request:
“After lavishing tax cuts on massive corporations and the ultra-wealthy, President Trump has released a budget that takes direct aim at many of the programs and funding that New Mexicans and Americans rely on for clean air, clean water, public health, and thriving public lands. His budget also eviscerates the health and economic safety net for working families, and directly contradicts his own promises by proposing to cut Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program by $700 billion—a program that over 735,000 New Mexicans rely on. And his budget would harm the economies and natural resources of Western states by slashing the Interior Department’s budget by 16 percent—effectively eliminating the Land and Water Conservation Fund and shortchanging the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program which supports rural Western counties. In the face of climate change, President Trump directs one of the largest cuts in his entire budget to the Environmental Protection Agency—showing yet again that clean air and clean water are the lowest priority of this administration, especially when compared to polluter profits. And the Trump budget makes major cuts to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education, threatening our ability to live up to our trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribal communities.
“President Trump would have you believe they are making these cuts to save money—and yet, the president found the money for a $1.5 trillion tax break for the wealthiest Americans that exploded the deficit.
“I will do everything in my power on the Appropriations Committee to defeat these budget cuts in Congress, and I hope that the Senate will continue to work in a bipartisan way to defeat the Trump administration’s objectionable priorities.”