President Trump’s first budget, titled “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” proposes deep, sweeping cuts to government-funded scientific and medical research—and would eliminate federal support for the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities outright. While many expected cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and Energy Department, the breadth of the moves come as a shock, including the slashing of agencies that have long enjoyed bipartisan support. Among them: a proposed $6 billion cut to the National Institutes of Health, or one-fifth of its 2016 budget. The NIH sends about 80 percent of its budget to 300,000 outside researchers, meaning the dramatic cuts would send shockwaves across the scientific community more broadly. Other science programs will be terminated completely, including a NASA satellite program that monitors solar storms and Earth’s climate, the EPA’s program to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, and the accident-probing arm of the Chemical Safety Board. The Trump plan would also “end federal involvement” with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. With the EPA cuts alone, some 3,200 jobs would be eliminated. “You can’t drain the swamp and leave all the people in it,” White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told reporters, the Post reported.
