川普提給國會的2018年度預算23日公佈。新預算案大幅刪減健康、環境和安全網計畫以及能源、氣候科學和醫療相關的聯邦研究，其中美國環保署（EPA）總預算減少31%、科技預算減少39%、總營運預算減少35%，令關心環境和公共衛生的美國人大感不滿。
代表全美45州所屬機構的全國乾淨空氣機構協會（National Association of Clean Air Agencies）執行董事貝克（Bill Becker）警告：「川普的預算案一旦生效，將衝擊州和地方政府的空氣污染管制機構。」
憂思科學家聯盟（Union of Concerned Scientists，UCS）稱川普的2018預算案「完全不正義，帶給窮人和勞動階級美國人不成比例的傷害」。
環境警察破功 美環署有如被「砍去手腳」
川普也提案刪減州和地方政府機構預算45%，包括將州和地方政府空氣品質監控機構實施乾淨空氣法的預算減少30%。此外，還有許多地方計畫經費遭到刪除，包括切薩皮克灣、大湖、尚普蘭湖和龐特雷特蘭湖、墨西哥灣、南佛羅里達州、舊金山灣和普吉特海峽。
貝克警告：「這些刪減將使健康相關的空氣品質標準延後達成，減少針對不合規設施的檢查，減少都會區的空氣品質監測，減少解決空氣品質問題的機關和人事。這些變更完全不符合川普政府號稱的『合作聯邦制』精神」。[註]
UCS主席、前麻省環保局局長金茂（Ken Kimmell）說：「川普的預算將砍去EPA的手腳、消滅環境警察的角色，讓污染者繼續為所欲為。我有經驗，我知道缺少經費的環境局處員工有多難做事。此外，川普的預算還會阻礙美國科技創新和科學研究、影響美國對極端氣候和國家安全威脅的反應能力，這些錢都被拿去投入沒有必要又昂貴的軍事支出。」
低碳生活部落格報導，根據美國環境委員會（Environmental Council of the States）估算，環保署擔負各州環保局預算的比例高達27％，常以「專案撥款」（categorical grants）形式支付，這次卻被川普大手筆砍了44％。
「專案撥款其實是種『服務費』，代表地方政府代替環保署執行聯邦計畫。」賓州環保局（Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection）職員Patrick McDonnell解釋，一旦該經費被腰斬，以後根本無法執行《潔淨空氣法》《潔淨水法》等中央法案。
海洋保育預算也被刪 恐無力負擔第二起墨灣漏油
海洋保育協會（Ocean Conservancy）代表瓦特斯（Jeff Watters）對川普砍掉國家海洋大氣管理局（NOAA）10億美元預算也非常不滿。瓦特斯指出，沿海產業發展計畫、鯨船相撞和海洋毒害相關獸醫學研究、發展沿海氣候適應能力的計畫都將受影響。
根據低碳生活部落格，這次預算案還打算減少專門整治污染的「環保超級基金」（Superfund）三成補助款，與環保署執法及稽查辦公室（Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance）近1/4（24％）預算。過往這些經費都直接挹注到司法部、國家海洋和大氣局、各州環保局等執行單位，今後各種污染防治、清理、與執法動作將更難進行。假使又碰上2010年的墨西哥灣漏油事件，光憑缺乏資源缺乏的地方政府和民間團體，勢必無力處理。
處理核武過剩的鈽 MOX燃料計畫獲終止
不過，UCS肯定川普終止混合氧化物（MOX）燃料計畫，將美國核武器計畫過剩的鈽處理掉。
許多能源部委製的獨立報告指出，在南卡羅來納州薩凡納河流域進行MOX計畫花費將遠超過估計，直接將過剩的鈽處理掉比較省錢且安全。
UCS長期以來呼籲取消MOX計畫，因為這個計畫讓恐怖份子容易取得發展核武用的裂變材料。
安全網破洞 獲取基本醫療服務更難了
奧勒岡護理師協會執行董事蘇珊金（Susan King）亦抨擊川普忽視美國人的健康風險。「川普刪除數百萬兒童、老人和家庭依賴的健康照護服務，破壞美國人花幾個世代才建立起的安全網。加上川普廢除健保的法案，整個預算案剝奪了有需要的人們取得基本醫療服務的機會，增加公衛風險。」
此外，川普也刪除了癌症研究、慢性病預防、健康保險和健康促進計畫的預算。
President Donald Trump's proposed fiscal year 2018 budget request to Congress, released in detail Tuesday, has Americans who care about the environment and public health up in arms. The proposal would impose massive cuts on health, environmental and safety net programs and gut federal research in the energy, climate science and medical fields.
"President Trump's proposed budget cuts, if enacted, devastate state and local governmental air pollution control agencies. In short, these cuts will result in more people dying prematurely and getting sick unnecessarily," warns Bill Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, which represents member agencies in 45 states.
Trump's budget request demands deep cuts in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:
* – a 31 percent cut in EPA's overall budget from Fiscal Year 2017 to FY 2018
* – a 39 percent cut in EPA's Science and Technology budget
* – a 35 percent cut in EPA's overall operating budget
Trump's budget eliminates EPA funding for a dozen geographic programs including the Chesapeake Bay, the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain and Lake Ponchartrain, the Gulf of Mexico, South Florida, San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound.
The president also proposes a 45 percent cut in federal grants to state and local governmental agencies. Included among these cuts is a 30 percent reduction for state and local air quality control agencies to implement the Clean Air Act.
Becker warns, "These cuts will mean delays in meeting health-based air quality standards, less inspections against noncomplying facilities, decreased monitoring in metropolitan areas, and fewer agency staff to address air quality problems. While the Trump administration has been touting its commitment to ‘cooperative federalism,' these proposed cuts belie that assertion."
See the details at: http://www.4cleanair.org/sites/default/files/Documents/EPA_FY18_Budget.pdf
The Union of Concerned Scientists, UCS, calls Trump's proposed 2018 budget "a deeply unjust budget that would disproportionately harm poor and working class Americans."
UCS President Ken Kimmell, a former Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner, said, "His budget would gut the EPA," said Kimmell, "taking our environmental cops off the beat and allowing those who would seek to pollute to get away with it. I also know from my experience heading a state environmental agency that states have neither the funds nor the staff to pick up the slack when federal enforcement is decimated."
"His budget would also stall out U.S. technological innovation and scientific research, and the country's capabilities to respond to extreme weather and national security threats. This is all while driving up the deficit to pay for massive military budget increases we don't need," Kimmell warned.
On the other hand, the UCS reacted positively to one proposal in the budget request – Trump's proposal to shut down the mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel project to dispose of excess plutonium from the U.S. nuclear weapons program.
Several independent reports commissioned by the Energy Department concluded that the cost to complete the MOX program at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina would be much more than initial estimates, and that alternative approaches to disposing of the excess plutonium would be more affordable and less risky.
The Union of Concerned Scientists has long called for canceling the program because it would make it easier for terrorists to gain access to fissile material that could be used to make a nuclear weapon.
Jeff Watters of the Ocean Conservancy is equally outraged by Trump's budget proposal. "The president's budget has officially placed coastal communities and ocean health on the chopping block, with a nearly $1 billion cut to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) budget," he warned.
He points to local fishermen who depend on NOAA's Sea Grant program for coastal industries in the same way farmers receive support from the United States Department of Agriculture. Elimination of this program would disrupt entire businesses along our coasts and lakes.
Veterinarians rely on NOAA to conduct vital research to protect whales from ship strikes and ocean toxins, and coastal states, tribes and families count on NOAA's Regional Coastal Resilience Grants to assess coastal risks and provide storm warnings.
And it is people's health that this budget proposal is placing at risk, says Oregon Nurses Association's Executive Director Susan King, RN, MS, CEN, FAAN.
"President Trump's callous budget cuts would eliminate the health care services millions of children, seniors and families rely on and rip apart the safety net generations of Americans have worked to build," said King. "Combined with the President's health care repeal bill, this proposal continues stripping essential services from those who need assistance most and leaves us increasingly vulnerable to public health crises."
Said King, "A budget that cuts cancer research, chronic disease prevention, health insurance and health promotion leaves all Americans less healthy and less safe."
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