The Trump administration recently announced plans to cut the US EPA’s Office and Research and Development’s budget by over 40% to $290 million. The cuts would specifically target research done in the fields of climate change, air and water quality, and chemical safety, with research spending falling 50.2% to $45.7 million and falling 30.7% to $61.8 million, respectively. In addition, water-related research would decrease 34.6% to $70.1 million, and the budget for sustainable healthy communities will fall 45.7% to $75.8 million. With these cuts, the EPA’s $50 million grant for academic environmental scientists at universities would completely disappear. The cuts are part of a larger plan to decrease the EPA’s total budget by 25% to $6.1 billion and lay off 20% of the Agency’s employees by FY18, beginning October 1. Furthermore, the EPA would no longer be a part of the multiagency US Global Change Research Program and funding for endocrine system-disrupting chemicals would fall significantly.

Source: Science