Latest news with #budgetcut
E&E News
18 hours ago
- Business
- E&E News
Trump takes aim at EPA staffing levels, popular programs
The Trump administration is seeking to cut deeply into traditional — and sometimes politically popular — EPA programs, while following through on Administrator Lee Zeldin's vow to return the agency's core workforce to levels last seen during Ronald Reagan's presidency. A detailed version of the administration's fiscal 2026 budget blueprint released late Friday would slice the ranks of 'full-time equivalent' EPA employees from 14,130 this year to 12,856 in 2026, a 9 percent drop. That would be the lowest total since 1985, according to official numbers posted online. Helping to take up the slack, the proposal suggests, would be more reliance on artificial intelligence. Advertisement 'By leveraging AI to transition from paper-based and analog processes to digital ones, the Agency can speed up and automate administrative and operational tasks as well as improve data analysis and collection,' the request says.
Wall Street Journal
a day ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Top U.S. Cyber Agency Faces Staff and Funding Cuts in New Budget
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency would have its funding slashed by $495 million to a $2.38 billion allocation in President Trump's proposed budget for fiscal 2026. The falloff marks a stark reversal in budgetary trends for CISA, which saw its funding either climb or stay relatively flat over the past five years, from $2 billion in 2020 to almost $3 billion last year. Kristi Noem, the Homeland Security secretary, has repeatedly said she wants CISA to focus more on its core mission of protecting critical infrastructure and civilian federal agencies, and has criticized its past efforts in election security and monitoring disinformation. The budget will reduce the number of employees in CISA's election-security program and shutter the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which the agency funded.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Louisiana senators trim private education vouchers, expand Medicaid budget
Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, helped lead an effort to reduce funding in the state budget for a new private education voucher program that Gov. Jeff Landry has pushed. (Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator) The Republican-led Louisiana Senate Finance Committee has removed public money meant to expand the use of private education vouchers in spite of the initiative being a priority for fellow Republican Gov. Jeff Landry. The committee agreed Sunday to cut $50 million from LA GATOR, Landry's initiative launching in the 2025-26 school year. The reduction will leave $44 million for the program, enough to continue covering private school tuition for 6,000 students who already receive state-funded vouchers. Landry and the Louisiana House wanted to put an additional $50 million into LA GATOR so the state could give out 5,300 new vouchers next school year, for approximately 11,300 overall. The cut was one of the biggest shakeups in the Senate leadership's initial version of the $43 billion state budget unveiled Sunday. The Senate and House must come together to reach a compromise on the spending plan by June 12. Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, has been resolute in his opposition to giving out more vouchers in the coming year. For weeks, he has expressed concern that LA GATOR's cost could grow faster than the state can afford it, and that the state's existing voucher program hasn't resulted in better education outcomes for students enrolled in it. Still, Landry and conservative groups who back LA GATOR have been putting pressure on senators to keep the $50 million in the program. They are running advertisements and recently held a rally next to the Capitol pushing for additional vouchers for the program. Some senators were also reluctant to explain why the money had been removed Sunday. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Glen Womack, R-Harrisonburg, and Sen. Rick Edmonds, who sponsored the bill to set up LA GATOR last year, allowed the state budget bill with the cut to move forward, but they declined to comment after the committee meeting. Louisiana Education Superintendent Cade Brumley, one of LA GATOR's biggest proponents, also refused to comment on the budget change after the committee hearing. Brumley said he had not had a chance to review the adjustment to the program yet. Yet based on the assumption that the number of vouchers offered would grow, Brumley had opened applications for the program across the state earlier this spring. Nearly 40,000 families have applied for the limited slots. At least some of the $50 million taken from LA GATOR is going to be used to restore $30 million to a targeted tutoring program for public elementary school students. Brumley attributed some of Louisiana's success on national math and reading tests to the tutoring program and said he was grateful it had been added back into the budget. Landry, Senate hope for hundreds of millions in federal Medicaid funding The Republican Senate leadership's version of the budget also adds hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to the state Medicaid budget. The money would be used to pay physicians and hospitals a higher reimbursement rate for treating Medicaid patients. Landry asked the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services earlier this year to allow Louisiana's medical providers to receive a rate for treating Medicaid patients closer to what private insurers provide. The federal government has not agreed pay the new rate yet. But if it does, it will increase Louisiana's federal Medicaid funding by $500 million in the state budget cycle that starts June 1. Hundreds of millions of federal dollars could also be given to Louisiana to retroactively cover payments in the current budget year that ends June 30. Louisiana's request for more Medicaid funding comes at a time when President Donald Trump and U.S. House Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, are pushing for ways to reduce the nation's overall spending on Medicaid. But the reimbursement rates are not expected to be affected by changes Congress is considering. UNO transfer to LSU System comes with debt relief The Senate has added $20 million in its budget proposal for the University of Louisiana System to pay off debt associated with the University of New Orleans, which is likely to move over to the LSU System this summer. The Senate has also included nearly $2 million for the UL System to continue a youth recreation partnership at UNO for another year and $450,000 for LSU to conduct an 'academic and finance' audit of UNO in the next fiscal cycle. Sheriffs will get paid more to hold state inmates The Senate added $11.6 million to the budget in order to give local sheriffs $3 more per day per inmate to house state adult inmates in their local jails. Currently, sheriffs are paid $26.39 per day per inmate to house state prisoners. Louisiana keeps approximately 15,800 inmates in local parish jails instead of state prisons. This includes almost 2,000 state prisoners who are in transitional work programs, where they hold jobs at private businesses in the community while living at the jail. Louisiana DOGE gets money, staff to find efficiencies The Senate has added $1.5 million into the budget to support the so-called 'Louisiana DOGE' initiative Landry set up to search for government efficiencies. The money will support 10 positions in Landry's Division of Administration to perform a financial review of government services statewide.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Hunger relief group says it's facing a $2.5 million budget shortfall due to federal cuts
Feeding South Dakota's Rapid City location on May 30, 2025. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight) South Dakota's largest hunger-relief organization says it faces a $2.5 million budget shortfall next year because of President Donald Trump's federal funding cuts. Feeding South Dakota CEO Lori Dykstra addressed lawmakers on a budget committee Friday in Pierre. She said the group has already cut the amount of food it provides and has merged distribution sites. She warned that unless the funding gap is filled, 21 food distribution events in 15 counties will be eliminated, affecting 3,400 families and eliminating more than 1.7 million meals annually. 'We're not here to say whether or not the federal funding decisions are right or wrong,' Dykstra said. 'We're just letting you know that one of the unintentional consequences is that the food safety net for Feeding South Dakota and for all of your neighbors facing hunger is at risk.' The cuts come from the rollback of federal aid by the Trump administration, particularly programs begun during the COVID-19 pandemic to help the U.S. Department of Agriculture support food distribution. Dykstra said the group must now find $2.5 million to replace lost USDA support in fiscal year 2026, which begins July 1, or make cuts. Dykstra also warned that if the current budget reconciliation legislation in Congress is enacted, the state could be on the hook for 5% of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and a larger share of SNAP administrative costs, adding up to a possible $13 million total state obligation. SNAP participants can use their benefits to purchase food. 'SNAP benefits get people out of food lines,' she said. 'So, it's either they're in the food bank line or they're in the grocery store.' Dykstra said 113,000 South Dakotans are food insecure, meaning they are uncertain about where their next meal will come from, often forced to skip meals, eat less, or purchase cheaper, less nutritious food. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's 2026 budget would slash NASA funding by 24% and its workforce by nearly one third
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The White House wants to slash NASA's budget and workforce and cancel a number of high-profile missions next year, newly released documents reveal. On May 2, the Trump administration released its 2026 "skinny budget" request, a broad summary of its funding plans for the coming fiscal year. That document proposed cutting NASA funding by nearly 25%, from $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion, with much of the reduction coming from the agency's science programs. On Friday afternoon (May 31), the White House published a more detailed version of the 2026 budget request, which shone more light on the administration's aims and the potential effects on NASA, its people and its mission portfolio. The proposed budget top line is the same in the newly released documents, which you can find here: NASA is allocated $18.8 billion in fiscal year 2026, which runs from Oct. 1, 2025 through Sept. 30, 2026. This would be the biggest single-year cut to NASA in history, and the 2026 funding would be the agency's lowest since 1961 when adjusted for inflation, according to The Planetary Society, a nonprofit exploration advocacy organization. NASA science funding would be cut by 47% next year, to $3.9 billion — the same number provided by the skinny budget. This would result in the cancellation of a number of high-profile missions and campaigns, according to the new documents. For example, Mars Sample Return — a project to haul home Red Planet material already collected by NASA's Perseverance rover — would get the axe. So would the New Horizons mission, which is exploring the outer solar system after acing its Pluto flyby in July 2015, and Juno, a probe that has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016. Two orbiters that have been studying Mars for years — Mars Odyssey and MAVEN — would be cancelled, as would NASA's cooperation on Rosalind Franklin, a life-hunting rover that the European Space Agency plans to launch toward the Red Planet in 2028. "In total, this budget aims to cancel 41 science projects — fully a third of NASA's science portfolio," The Planetary Society said in a statement about the newly released budget documents. "These are unique projects that would require billions of new spending to replace." The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA's highly anticipated next-gen observatory, is not one of the casualties, as many had feared. But the budget request allocates just $156.6 million to Roman's development next year — less than half of what NASA had planned to spend. The budget request also slashes NASA's workforce from its current 17,391 to 11,853 — a reduction of about 32%. And it would eliminate the agency's Office of STEM Engagement, saying that NASA will inspire future generations sufficiently via its missions. "The radical and rapid gutting of NASA's resources will lead to reduced productivity, threaten institutional knowledge and create economic uncertainty in the American industrial base," The Planetary Society said. The organization is not a fan of the White House's plan, describing it as "an extinction-level event for the space agency's most productive, successful and broadly supported activity: science." Related stories: — Trump administration proposes slashing NASA budget by 24% — Experts alarmed as White House proposes 'largest single-year cut to NASA in American history' — Trump's 2026 budget plan would cancel NASA's Mars Sample Return mission. Experts say that's a 'major step back' The newly published documents also confirm other exploration plans laid out in the skinny budget — for example, the cancellation of the Gateway moon-orbiting space station and the phaseout of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule. These pieces of hardware have long been part of NASA's architecture for Artemis, its program of crewed moon exploration. The 2026 budget request eliminates SLS and Orion after they fly together on Artemis 3, a crewed landing mission targeted to launch in 2027. They would be replaced by private vehicles developed via the new "Commercial Moon to Mars (M2M) Infrastructure and Transportation Program," which gets $864 million in the 2026 budget proposal. It's unclear how much of this will actually come to pass, however; the budget request is just a proposal, which will not be enacted unless and until Congress approves it. The Planetary Society, for one, doesn't think this will happen; it describes the budget request "as dead on arrival in Congress."
