Joel Connelly: Inslee calls Trump budget cuts 'devastating'
The proposed cuts in President Trump's budget blueprint are "draconian" and would have "devastating impacts on communities in Washington," Gov. Jay Inslee said Monday in a letter to the state's congressional delegation.
"I ask for your support in sustaining crucial federal investments in our state," the governor told a delegation that consists of two Democratic senators, six Democratic House members and four Republicans.
The governor singled out programs vital to coastal areas, where Trump won support from counties that normally vote Democratic.
The draft budget would zero out money to the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, which has received $65 million in recent years and, in Inslee's words, "is the most essential federal program supporting recovery of endangered salmon and steelhead populations in Western states."
As well, Inslee took aim at proposed total elimination of the EPA's Puget Sound recovery program, which is currently receiving $28 million. The Trump budget ax would fall everywhere, from Chesapeake Bay to the Great Lakes to San Francisco Bay.
"Puget Sound is the nation's largest estuary, and the cultural center of the Pacific Northwest," Inslee wrote. "Millions live, work and recreate on its shores. Despite recent gains, the rate of degradation outpaces the rate of recovery . . .
"Elimination of this program would be a stark reversal of recent positive progress made by the federal government in its commitment to Puget Sound recovery, and would have devastating consequences for the health of our Sound."
In what little justification it has made for proposed cuts, the Trump administration has argued that states should take over responsibility from the federal government in a multiplicity of fields.
Inslee countered: The Washington Legislature is immersed in finding resources to fully fund basic K–12 education, in compliance with a State Supreme Court order. The state is also dealing with a crisis in mental health care and homelessness.
"Particularly at this time," Inslee wrote, "we cannot afford the federal government shifting enormous new costs onto our state, or slashing programs that support our economy and the health, safety and well-being of our communities."
The Trump budget takes aim at programs that have enjoyed bipartisan backing.
The Women, Infants and Children (WIC) nutrition program was the first social spending program signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. A leading House sponsor was Washington's liberal Democratic Congressman Mike Lowry.
Trump is proposing a $300 million cut in WIC. The Washington Department of Health in 2016 received $146 million to provide nutritional support for low-income infants, children and women who are pregnant or breast feeding.
The Trump budget would also eliminate the Low-Income Housing Energy Assistance Program. "LIHEAP provides home heating assistance and crisis prevention services for approximately 75,500 Washington households," Inslee's letter told the lawmakers.
Science takes a particular hit in the Trump budget proposal.
Spending for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would be slashed by $5.8 billion or 18 percent, cuts of particular pain for Washington. Wrote Inslee:
"NIH provides life-saving medical research, in which our state is a national leader. Last year the NIH provided $522 million to support research at the University of Washington, and $247 million for the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. This cut would adversely impact important work at these and other research institutions across the country."
The President proposes, goes an old adage, but Congress disposes.
Congress controls federal spending. And Washington lawmakers are positioned to rescue programs such as Puget Sound Cleanup, WIC and LIHEAP from the knife.
Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., sit on the Senate and House Appropriations Committee. They have already decried the proposed budget measures.
In Trump's party, however, Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., sit on the House Appropriations Committee. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., is a member of the House Republican leadership.
The Republicans may not hold town meetings, but their actions will speak loudly.
By: Joel Connelly
Source: SeattlePI