Congressional compromise bill rejects Trump's worst environmental cuts

The US Senate passed a limited spending package on Thursday that will largely fund several science- and land-related agencies, including the Department of Interior, the US Forest Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the US Environmental Protection Agency, at current levels. Having passed the House on January 8, the bill now heads to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it.

The bill was, in many ways, a congressional rebuke of Trump’s request to drastically cut critical federal services related to the environment.

“It really shows that our public lands are meant to be managed for everyone in this country and not just private industry looking to turn a profit,” said Miranda Badgett, senior government relations representative for The Wilderness Society. “This bill really rejected some of the reckless budget cuts we saw proposed by the administration that would impact our national public-land agencies.”

Still, to conservation and science advocates, the bill is a compromise between Republican and Democratic priorities: It trims slightly 2025 budget numbers, including millions of dollars cut from NASA, the EPA and the US Geological Survey. It also doesn’t account for inflation, said Jacob Malcom, executive director of Next Interior, which advocates for the Interior Department.