Donald Trump's proposed budget cuts 90 per cent funding. Shocking details here
The 2026 proposed budget allocates $29 million for the project, a cut from its current funding level of $293 million. The budget proposal also reduces funds for other programs in the USGS, as well as other federal science agencies, NYT News Service reported.
The budget still needs to be approved by Congress and scientists are seizing the opportunity to save the EMA. In early May, more than 70 scientific societies and universities signed a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, urging him not to eliminate the program.
Abolishing the EMA was an explicit goal of Project 2025, the blueprint for shrinking the federal government produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation. That work cited decades-long struggles over the Interior Department's land management in the West, where protections for endangered species have at times prevented development, drilling and mining.
The EMA is also a core part of federal climate research. The Trump administration has sharply reduced or eliminated funds for climate science across federal agencies, calling the study of climate change part of "social agenda" research in an earlier version of the budget proposal.
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"It's appalling," said Peter Groffman, an ecosystems ecologist at the City University of New York and a leader of the Ecological Society of America. "This is a division that does very important work, and does it very well," Groffman said.
Universities and other institutions are unlikely to be able to carry on the work, he said. There are no immediately apparent plans from the administration to transfer EMA research to other federal agencies.
The EMA runs dozens of biology and climate science centers, cooperates with universities in 41 states to identify and carry out pressing ecology and environmental health research, and more. Here is a snapshot of its work.
FAQs
Q1. What does proposed US Budget 2026 state?
A1. The 2026 proposed budget allocates $29 million for the project, a cut from its current funding level of $293 million.
Q2. What is full form of USGS?
A2. The full form of USGS is United States Geological Survey.
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