Trump Budget Would Slash Some Construction Spending, Boost Transportation Projects

The White Home proposed $163 billion in non-defense spending cuts in its 2026 discretionary budget request launched Might 2. Whereas Congress should nonetheless finalize the federal price range, the proposal offers a glance into Trump administration priorities that would come with each will increase and cuts for various packages funding development initiatives.

The cuts would quantity to a 22.6% lower from the enacted 2025 price range. As proposed, the partial price range would formalize many cuts the president has moved to make through govt order, corresponding to to environmental initiatives and variety, fairness and inclusion packages.

Among the largest cuts are proposed to the U.S. State Dept. and worldwide packages, amounting to a discount of $49.1 billion, or 83.7%. Division cuts of $33.6 billion would come from Housing and City Improvement and $33.3 billion from Well being and Human Providers. 

Atmosphere and Power

The proposal would lower billions of {dollars} in funding from environmentally targeted packages. It will “cancel” $15.2 billion from numerous U.S. Dept. of Power packages corresponding to these funding renewable vitality and carbon dioxide elimination from the air. 

The Trump price range request targets one other $2.5 billion from the U.S. Environmental Safety Company clear and ingesting water State Revolving Fund (SRF) components packages. White Home officers wrote in price range paperwork that “states needs to be chargeable for funding their very own water infrastructure initiatives,” and claimed SRFs are duplicative of different packages just like the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA). One other $1 billion could be lower from 16 EPA categorical grants for states and native governments. 

Additionally focused for cuts is $609 million from Bureau of Reclamation packages that fund efforts corresponding to habitat restoration, however not constructing or sustaining water infrastructure. 

The price range would lower $389 million from the Power Dept.’s Environmental Administration program, which leads nuclear and unsafe waste cleanup actions at 14 websites and operates the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, a geologic disposal facility in New Mexico. White Home officers wrote that the price range maintains 2025 funding ranges for the Hanford Web site cleanup in Washington state, however reduces funding for work at different websites. The cuts embrace $178 million that officers attributed to the transition of tasks from the Environmental Administration program to the Nationwide Nuclear Safety Administration. 

The price range would additionally lower $254 million from the federal Superfund program, which officers wrote nonetheless has $1.6 billion accessible from the 2021 Infrastructure Funding and Jobs Act and the 2022 Inflation Discount Act. 

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), rating member of the Senate Committee on Atmosphere and Public Works, criticized the cuts as “an unmitigated catastrophe for everybody besides the looters and polluters” in an announcement. 

“By crippling the EPA, Trump would be certain that households nationwide are extra dangerously uncovered to unsafe ingesting water, poisonous waste and the skyrocketing prices of local weather change,” Whitehouse stated. 

The proposal additionally cuts $325 million from the Nationwide Institute of Requirements and Know-how. In price range paperwork, White Home officers wrote that NIST “has lengthy funded awards for the event of curricula that advance a radical local weather agenda” and its Round Economic system Program “pushes environmental alarmism.”

One other $80 million could be lower from Dept. of the Inside renewable vitality packages underneath the proposal. 

Transportation Funding

A number of U.S. Dept. of Transportation packages serving to fund development initiatives would see will increase underneath the proposed price range. These embrace an extra $824 million for a Federal Aviation Administration program to improve U.S. Nationwide Airspace System services and change radar tools. 

The price range would add $770 million for the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant program, which the White Home praised for utilizing a “rigorous benefit-cost analyst” in selecting freeway, port and freight rail initiatives to assist. It additionally provides $400 million for rail security and infrastructure grants, and $596 million for shipbuilding and port infrastructure. 

Workforce Coaching

As a part of the White Home’s Make America Expert Once more initiative, officers have proposed handing states “extra management and suppleness to coordinate with employers.” States receiving associated grants must spend at the least 10% of the award on apprenticeship packages, which the Trump administration has moved to boost. 

“At this level within the course of … the important thing worth in a proposal like that is it displays a number of the coverage priorities of the administration,” stated Brian Turmail, vice chairman of public affairs and workforce on the Related Normal Contractors of America, through e-mail. “To that finish, we had been inspired by the sturdy assist for craft workforce growth within the proposal.”

Whereas consolidating a number of grants underneath this system, the White Home proposes reducing $1.6 billion in funding. Trump officers criticized Biden administration priorities for workforce coaching spending, indicating grants wouldn’t be accessible for initiatives aiding immigrants or specializing in variety and inclusion. 

The price range additionally cuts one other $1.6 billion from the Job Corps, which officers wrote in price range paperwork is a “failed experiment,” and $405 million from a program that helped prepare and subsidize employment for low-income seniors. 

“President Trump’s first price range proposal reaffirms his unwavering dedication to placing American staff first, encouraging and empowering states to upskill their staff by increasing apprenticeship alternatives,” U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer stated in an announcement.

Extra Cuts

A number of different packages funding development initiatives are focused for funding cuts by the White Home’s proposal. They embrace $3.3 billion from HUD’s Neighborhood Improvement Block Grant program targeted on numerous neighborhood-level initiatives. White Home officers known as the components funding program “poorly focused” and stated initiatives that needs to be funded on the native stage.

The price range would lower $1.1 billion from the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers Harbor Upkeep Belief Fund. About half of the $2.8 billion appropriated to it in 2024 has not been obligated as of the primary quarter of 2025, in response to the White Home. 

One other $73 million could be lower from Nationwide Park Service development. The White Home goals to switch some smaller and less-visited parks to state or tribal governments, and officers wrote that park initiatives needs to be managed domestically. 

Lawmakers will doubtless make some adjustments earlier than finalizing their price range, though Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) known as the White Home proposal “a daring blueprint” and stated Home Republicans would work with the president “to implement a accountable price range.”

Democrats had been vital of the proposal. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), rating member on the Home Appropriations Committee, stated Trump officers “are attacking schooling, housing, most cancers analysis and investments within the center class to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.”