EPA Water Fund Boost Decried As No Substitute For Steep USDA Cuts

Environmentalists and water utility officials are criticizing a preliminary Trump administration plan to modestly boost funding for EPA's water infrastructure funds in fiscal year 2018 because it is dwarfed by a plan to cut nearly $500 million from a Department of Agriculture (USDA) water and wastewater program. The proposed increase for EPA's water infrastructure funds, one of the few agency programs to have received an increase in the fiscal year 2018 budget request, “is a fake increase,” says one environmentalist...