Trump budget takes hatchet to farms and forestry
The Trump administration's budget request for the next fiscal year would curb help to farmers for conservation efforts and cut off forestry funds for state and privately owned lands, while boosting the fight against plant and livestock pests and diseases.
Those are some of the themes emerging from the more detailed spending wish list the administration released late Friday for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
Presidential budget requests typically don't go very far in Congress, where lawmakers are less likely to embrace the most far-reaching spending reductions. But the Trump request reflects the administration's priorities and offers some hints about planned agency reorganizations.
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Total discretionary spending would fall by about 22 percent, to $22.1 billion, at the Department of Agriculture, the administration said.
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