Local officials react to Trump’s budget proposal

Editor’s Note: Lookout Eugene-Springfield is reviewing the proposed 2026 budget released Friday morning and contacting local organizations that may be impacted. This story has been updated with comment from the University of Oregon.

The Trump administration Friday released a $1.7 trillion discretionary budget proposal for 2026, calling for $163 billion in cuts to domestic nondefense programs while boosting national security spending, as local and state officials worked to determine how the proposal could affect life in Oregon and Lane County.

Russell T. Vought, the director of the federal Office of Management and Budget, set the tone for the budget document in a letter accompanying the submission to Congress, which must approve the budget.

Vought wrote: “The recommended funding levels result from a rigorous, line-by-line review of (fiscal year) 2025 spending, which was found to be laden with spending contrary to the needs of ordinary working Americans and tilted toward funding niche non-government organizations and institutions of higher education committed to radical gender and climate ideologies antithetical to the American way of life.”

Vought said budget writers also considered whether federal governmental services could be better provided by state or local governments — “if provided at all.”

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, had a different take.

“This budget is Donald Trump’s latest blueprint to rip away the services that millions of Americans rely on, leaving families less safe and less healthy,” Oregon’s senior senator said in a statement. “The only winners here will be corporations wanting to pollute your clean air and drinking water and rich tax cheats. One hundred days in, the Trump administration is doubling down on its agenda to help corporations and billionaires get wealthier while everyone else gets left behind.”

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, raised similar concerns.

“This budget is exactly what we expected: a betrayal of hardworking, middle-class families that shows the President’s singular focus is slashing essential government programs in order to fund more tax breaks for his billionaire buddies,” he said in a statement. “This is not what the American people voted for, and it is sure as hell not the answer to sky-high costs that families, seniors, veterans, and workers are facing.”

U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Oregon, sharply criticized the proposal, saying the United States needs a budget that puts people first.

“This budget proposal reads like a wish list for the wealthy and well-connected,” Hoyle said in a statement. “They want to gut investments in education, health care, and clean energy while pouring billions more into the Pentagon and protecting tax loopholes for billionaires. Working families are being asked to sacrifice so defense contractors and the rich can cash in.”

The administration’s budget must still be approved by the Republican-controlled Congress. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson praised the proposal, but some prominent Republicans — including Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine — shared reservations.

Here are highlights of the budget, grouped into rough subject areas:

Education

The budget would cut $4.5 billion from Title I funds intended for high-poverty schools. The administration said the reduction would come from “streamlined, flexible funding directly to States so that they have the discretion to support those activities that make the most sense for their respective communities.”

The budget would cut about $1.6 billion from programs — TRIO and GEAR UP — aimed at supporting low-income students and preparing them for college. The administration said the programs are “relics of the past” and that “access to college is not the obstacle it once was for students of limited means.”

The budget document also calls for cutting $980 million from federal work-study programs and $910 million from Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants. The document took a number of swipes at higher education, saying at one point that “a renewed focus on academics and scholastic accomplishment by (institutions of higher education), rather than engaging in woke ideology with Federal taxpayer subsidies, would be a welcome change for students and the future of the Nation.”

University of Oregon officials released this statement Sunday:

“The University of Oregon is deeply concerned about the administration’s proposed cuts to federal student aid, elimination of student support services, and drastic changes to the long-standing partnership between universities and federal research agencies. These investments are essential to expanding access to education, maintaining U.S. leadership in science, and supporting economic and societal progress in Oregon and across the nation. We will continue to work with Oregon’s congressional delegation and national higher education partners to protect investments in students and research.”

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities said that the cuts to federal student aid would “leave students shouldering higher costs, or put college entirely out of reach.”

Officials at the Eugene School District were reviewing the possible impacts of federal changes and waiting for the “critical outcome of the state budget process,” said Kelly McIver, director of communications and intergovernmental relations for the district.

McIver added: “Any new loss of revenue just worsens an already-bleak picture with declining state funds from shrinking enrollment, the loss of pandemic relief funding, and increases in retiree and insurance costs. Title I funds in 4J serve our most economically disadvantaged students and provide critical reading support. Any possible loss there undermines support for students.”

The Trump budget does not eliminate Head Start funding, although such a cut was being considered by administration officials, The New York Times reported last week.

Head Start serves nearly 12,000 children across Oregon and helps children from birth to age 5 from low-income families prepare for school. If federal funding had been eliminated, nearly 300 families in Lane County — and about 5,700 families statewide — would have lost access to services, according to Nancy Perin, executive director of the Oregon Head Start Association. 

Perin added Head Start isn’t out of the woods.

“Head Start hasn’t been saved yet,” Perin said Friday in an email to Lookout. “We are being cautiously optimistic at this point. We will continue to write and call because this is just the beginning — until we see an actual budget for Head Start we can’t rest easy.” 

The budget proposes spending an additional $60 million on expanding the number of charter schools in the United States.

Housing and community development

The proposed budget cuts $26.7 billion in funding for rental assistance programs, arguing that states would be able to “design their own rental assistance programs based on their own unique needs and preferences.” The budget also would institute a two-year cap on rental assistance for “able-bodied adults.”

The budget also would eliminate the Community Development Block Grant program, at a savings of $3.3 billion. The program offers grants to state and local governments for a range of community and economic development activities, but the budget document said the “program has been used for a variety of projects that the Federal Government should not be funding.”

The budget eliminates funding for the $4 billion Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps low-income households pay energy bills. The document said the proposal is “to end this program and to instead support low-income individuals through energy dominance, lower prices and an America First economic platform.”

The budget would cut nearly $2.5 billion from an Environmental Protection Agency program that offers low-cost financing for water quality projects. States should be responsible for funding their own water infrastructure projects, the document says.

The proposed budget calls for a $624 million reduction to the Economic Development Administration and Minority Business Development Agency. The budget document says the agency’s programs have been “hijacked and operate as spending earmarks for politicians’ favored projects as well as subsidies for ideologues who prioritize ‘racial equity’ and the radicalized climate agenda.” Among the programs cited as examples is the construction of Pride Plaza in Portland.

Health and science

The budget calls for $3.6 billion in cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), saying that the cuts will allow the agency to focus on “core activities such as emerging and infectious disease surveillance, outbreak investigations and maintaining the Nation’s public health infrastructure, while streamlining programs and eliminating waste.”

In addition, the budget seeks $18 billion in cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which the document says “has broken the trust of the American people with wasteful spending, misleading information, risky research and the promotion of dangerous ideologies that undermine public health.”

The budget recommends cutting the budget for the National Science Foundation by $4.7 billion, to $3.9 billion, mostly by cutting funding in climate, clean energy, “woke social, behavioral and economic sciences and programs in low-priority areas of science.” Funding for artificial intelligence and quantum information science research would be maintained at current levels.

The budget calls for $674 million in cuts to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ program management costs, but says the cutback will have “no impact on providing benefits to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.” (Social Security, which is considered mandatory spending, was not mentioned in the discretionary spending budget released Friday.)

The proposed budget eliminates the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, for a savings of $425 million. The program uses food banks to supply older Americans with food; the budget proposes replacing the program with Make America Healthy Again food boxes that would be “filled with commodities sourced from domestic farmers and given directly to American households.” 

The budget proposes no cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps.

Lane County Public Health receives federal funding, but most of it is funneled through the Oregon Health Authority, the state’s health agency. Health authority officials did not immediately return a call from Lookout seeking comment.

While Lane County Public Health is not directly tracking the NIH and CDC cuts, a spokesperson for the agency said its staff is concerned about the budget’s funding implications, and possible impacts to programs focusing on justice and gender-affirming care. 

Jason Davis, a spokesperson for Lane County Public Health and Human Services, said cuts could affect people of color and LGBTQ+ community members, some of whom need tailored guidance and resources.

“We just have to figure out a way to deliver services in ways we haven’t traditionally done,” Davis said. “That’s why we’re going back to the playbook now to figure out how to get there.”

Lane County Public Health has been awarded nearly $109 million in federal money for programs this year through 2026. Staff don’t anticipate losing that money, but say they’re tracking all possibilities.

Trump’s budget proposal also eliminates a little more than $1 billion from programs that provide grants for mental health and drug addiction in communities through the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The White House budget document criticized the grants for providing “harm reduction” services in communities, calling them “dangerous activities.” In recovery programs, harm reduction services can include clean syringes for people who are in addiction to prevent the spread of disease until a person enters other services and treatment.

Oregon has done a good job of leveraging those funds for services and will feel the impact more than states that haven’t used the programs as much, said Heather Jefferis, executive director of the Oregon Council for Behavioral Health, an industry group that represents providers statewide. 

“A cut that the Congress chooses will not impact every state the same, but what we do know is these cuts are serious and in Oregon, we’ll feel an impact, depending on what they choose,” Jefferis said.

The Oregon Health Authority declined to comment about the role SAMSHA grants play in the state’s broader efforts to combat addiction.

“OHA is actively assessing the impact of federal changes on programs in Oregon,” Kimberly Lynne Lippert said in an email in response to detailed questions. “We have no additional information to share at this time.”

Environment

The proposed budget cuts $4.7 billion from the Department of Energy’s budget, primarily by targeting programs that address climate change and renewable energy — programs the budget document refers to as the “Green New Scam.” 

The budget would trim more than $4 billion from the Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA cuts include $1 million from its categorical grants program, $254 million from the Superfund program and $100 million from its environmental justice program.

The cuts in the categorical grants program are particularly troubling to the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency, said Matt Sorenson, its public affairs and project manager. Those grants help fund state and local agencies like LRAPA, he said, and cuts would affect the agency’s ability to maintain current service levels. 

“These categorical grants support our core air quality programs such as: air monitoring, emissions inventories, permitting, compliance, and enforcement activities that protect air quality and public health throughout Lane County,” Sorenson said.

He emphasized that the Trump budget is only a proposal at this stage and that Congress has moderated similar proposed cuts to EPA in other budget cycles.

“We remain hopeful that bipartisan congressional support for clean air programs will continue, as these programs protect the health of all Americans regardless of political affiliation,” he said. 

The proposed budget also calls for cutting about $1.5 billion from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with more than $1.3 billion of that cut from the agency’s operations, research and grants programs. The budget document says that NOAA’s “educational grant programs have consistently funded efforts to radicalize students against markets and spread environmental alarm.”

The Department of Interior would absorb a $5.1 billion cut, including $900 million from the National Park System. The budget document cites an “urgent need to streamline staffing and to transfer certain properties” to state-level management.

The proposed budget trims $5 billion from the Department of Agriculture, including cuts of $721 million to USDA’s rural development programs and $754 million to the Natural Resource Conservation Service’s public land conservation programs. 

The budget would cut national forest system management by $392 million and eliminates the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program. The budget document says the goal is to “improve forest management and increase domestic timber production,” in addition to empowering states to assume a larger role in managing forestlands.

At the state Department of Environmental Quality, staff members were beginning to review the proposed budget. Dylan Darling, a public affairs specialist with DEQ, said the agency “will continue to actively monitor changes at the federal level and any impact they have on our ability to protect human health and the environment. Oregon’s communities and environment benefit significantly from federal funds.” 

Smaller agencies

The budget calls for the elimination of AmeriCorps, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the 400 Years of African American History Commission, among others. 

Winners

The budget calls for increases in some areas: Homeland Security, for example, is in line for a $43.8 billion increase, and the Department of Defense could receive an additional $113.3 billion, a 13% increase, to $1.01 trillion.

The Federal Aviation Administration is in line for a $359 million increase, mainly to deal with a shortage of air traffic controllers. And Veterans Affairs would receive an additional $5.4 billion, a 4% increase. 

Ashli Blow, Ben Botkin, Mike McInally, Lilly St. Angelo and Vanessa Salvia contributed to this report.