Skip to content
  1. Newsroom
  2. Press

Leader Schumer Lays Out Impacts Of Trump’s Proposed Budget As A Betrayal Of American Families; Budget Weakens National Security, Paves The Way For Disease Outbreaks, Slashes Disaster Readiness, Kills Main Street, And Raises Costs

Washington, D.C. – Following the release of President Trump’s budget proposal, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) highlighted the most alarming cuts, which are drastic and wide-ranging.

Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) highlighted how the Trump administration’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 slashes funding for a number of key programs that communities across the country depend upon. Leader Schumer highlighted the most severe and damaging cuts to families across New York and this country.  

“Donald Trump’s budget is dead on arrival in the Senate. As American families attempt to manage the economic uncertainty as costs rise and benefits get slashed because of Donald Trump’s failed economic policies, he hits them with yet another gut punch,” said Leader Schumer. “The chaos and cruelty of the Trump administration’s proposed budget shows no one is safe. Trump slashes our national security, disaster preparedness, students, and American families writ large with far-reaching and harmful cuts. Donald Trump’s first 100 days were marked by failure – and this budget is just more of the same failed agenda.”

Listed below are some of the most significant cuts proposed in the administration’s budget:

Raises Costs For Families:

  • Cuts funding for domestic energy programs and projects that would help lower costs and bring manufacturing back to America
  • Total Elimination of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), that helps six million seniors and families afford heat in the winter, cool their homes in the summer every year, and upgrade their homes. Raising energy bill prices for millions of Americans.   
  • $27 billion in cuts to the State Rental Assistance Block Grant, which helps the elderly, people with disabilities, veterans, and families afford rent who otherwise could be put out on the street.
  • Defunds the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law with a more than $15 billion cut across multiple programs at the Department of Energy, undermining everything from deploying low-cost, domestic energy to cleaning up our air and water
  • Slashes funding for the Department of Energy’s office dedicated to promoting energy efficiency and domestic energy sources by more than $2.5 billion, which will increases costs for everyday Americans
  • Slashes more than $400 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program designed to ensure low-income seniors meet their nutritional needs

Clean Water, Clean Air, and Our Parks:

  • Cuts funding for programs that protect our air and water, keep our communities healthy, and ensure our public lands continue to support rural economies and can be enjoyed by all
  • Funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is cut in half, including almost entirely eliminating funding for critical drinking water and clean water programs, as well as significant cuts to the Superfund program that cleans up toxic chemicals in our communities
  • Funding for the Interior Department is cut by about a third, including more than $1 billion in cuts to our national parks, likely meaning the Trump administration will close recreation areas, battlefields, and public lands that Americans across the country enjoy
  • Significant cuts to programs across multiple agencies that support wildfire mitigation and response that could worsen wildfires this season and in years to come, endangering communities across the U.S., but especially out West

Health Programs

  • Cripples research into cures for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and other life-threatening diseases by slashing $18 billion from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • Ends funding for disease prevention programs by cutting more than $3.6 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
  • Eliminates entire Title X Family Planning Program, which provides cancer screenings, contraception, and preventive care to millions
  • Cuts the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration’s (SAMHSA) budget by over $1 billion, imperiling patient access to critical treatments while opioid epidemic surges and deaths remain sky-high.
  • Devastates the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) hacking $674 million from their budget endangering access to health insurance

Education:

  • Attacks public education at every level—slashing $12 billion from the Department of Education and eliminating college access programs like TRIO (federal TRIO programs), GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs), and Federal Work Study
  • Zeroes out the Preschool Development Grant by $315 million which helps states strengthen their early childhood education systems and guts Title I and K-12 funding by $4.5 billion, shifting costs to local taxpayers
  • Totally eliminates federal support for libraries, museums, and arts and humanities programs by defunding Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) ($294.8 million), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) ($207 million), and National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) ($207 million)
  • Eliminates AmeriCorps that provides national service opportunities to help participants earn assistance to pay for their education while serving their country building houses, providing health care services, responding to disasters, tutoring students, and additional community projects

Housing:

  • Cuts the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) nearly in half, reducing HUD’s budget by over $33 billion, decimating rental assistance, homeless services, and housing support for seniors and people with disabilities
  • Eliminates key investments like the HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) and Community Development Block Grant —two of the most important tools cities and towns use to build housing to lower costs, strengthen infrastructure, and grow local economies

 Economic Development and Small Business

  • Eliminates nearly all Small Business Administration (SBA) entrepreneurial programs hurting small business assistance when Main Street businesses are struggling with Trump’s tariff tax hikes and the economic uncertainty they are creating
  • Eliminates the Economic Development Administration and key regional commissions, including the Northern Border Regional Commission, Delta Regional Authority, Great Lakes Authority, Southeast Crescent Regional Commission, Southwest Border Regional Commission, and Denali Commission, all of which rebuild local economies and support workforce training in distressed regions across the country so those areas can better compete and create jobs
  • Eliminates the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund discretionary awards that are critical to supporting small businesses, housing, and other community investments on Main Streets across the country

Rural Support:

  • Decimates USDOT’s Essential Air Service program cutting the program 50%, over $300 million, which would cause small airports to lose access to air service and force rural communities to travel hundreds of miles for nearest flights
  • Cuts $721 million in funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) rural development programs, destroying assistance for rural broadband, rural businesses, and community facilities investment – leaving small towns behind

Tribal Nations:

  • Breaks trust obligations to Tribal Nations—slashing over $900 million from core programs, nearly 25% of their federal support.
  • Tribal law enforcement would see a $107 million reduction (a 20% cut)
  • Eliminates funding for construction of tribal schools and slashes $187 million for the Bureau of Indian Education
  • A whopping $617 million cut to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, gutting support for housing, public safety, and self-governance in Native communities

National Security:

  • Slashes key national security funding by half, giving a gift to China and U.S. adversaries, threatening to bring disease and violence to our borders, and harming the safety of Americans and American business abroad
  • Cuts International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement funding by 91%, slashing key funding which supports counterdrug operations globally, harming U.S. efforts to stop fentanyl and other illicit drug operations from reaching our shores
  • Eliminates global food programming, taking a key source of revenue and exports away from American farmers
  • Reduces global health funding by 62% which will eliminate progress to combat malaria, TB, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases around the world and stop infectious diseases in their tracks before reaching Americans

Public Safety/Disaster Preparedness:

  • Over $1 billion in cuts to public safety, slashing Department of Justice grants that help local law enforcement prevent violent crime and hate-fueled attacks
  • Decimates $646 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s non-disaster grants, weakening community security and disaster readiness
  • Cuts $212M of core funding at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), limiting the agency’s ability to counter drug trafficking of illicit substances, endangering the lives of millions of Americans
  • Guts the Bureau of Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) by cutting $468M from the agency’s budget, directly impacting their capacity to enforce necessary gun safety regulations that keep Americans safe
  • Decreases the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) budget at DOJ by over half a billion dollars ($545M), undercutting law enforcement’s efforts to prevent domestic terrorism, disrupt trafficking networks, and respond swiftly to crime
  • Cuts the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) by $240 million, significantly hampering efforts to prepare for disease outbreaks

Veteran Care:

  • Defunds the VA Information Technology by roughly $500 million, destabilizing existing VA IT systems responsible for protecting veterans’ private health records, processing benefits claims, and performing other critical operations. This could contribute to delays in care, missed diagnoses, and worse health outcomes
  • $37 million cut for programs and planned staff reductions, contributing to the Trump administration’s plan to cut the VA workforce by nearly 20 percent

Innovation and Scientific Research:

  • Guts scientific research and innovation just as our adversaries like the People’s Republic of China ramp up R&D investments
  • Slashes the National Science Foundation (NSF) by over 50% hitting jobs across the country and undermining innovation of future technologies
  • Decimates National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s research and grant programs with a $1.5 billion cut, and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science with a $1.1 billion cut.
  • Largest single-year cut ever to NASA of over $5 billion
  • Cuts ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy) by 57% which has led to some of the federal government biggest scientific breakthroughs.
  • Massive cut to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) research and development office that oversees work on critical projects, like supporting the research and development of safer and more sustainable chemicals

###

Previous
Next