The White House has released its official “skinny budget” for fiscal year 2026, which outlines drastic cuts to NOAA and targets climate-related programs.
“For decades, the biggest complaint about the federal budget was wasteful spending and bloated bureaucracy,” U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said in a statement. “But, over the last four years, government spending aggressively turned against the American people and trillions of our dollars were used to fund cultural Marxism, radical Green New Scams, and even our own invasion. No agency was spared in the Left’s taxpayer-funded cultural revolution.”
News outlets had reported in April that U.S. President Donald Trump was planning major cuts and changes to NOAA, including NOAA Fisheries, which oversees the nation's fishing sector. The White House’s skinny budget confirms those reports, with a proposed USD 1.3 billion (EUR 1.1 billion) cut to NOAA’s overall budget. According to the Trump administration, the budget will terminate a large number of climate-related grants and research programs.
“NOAA’s educational grant programs have consistently funded efforts to radicalize students against markets and spread environmental alarm,” the administration noted in the budget outline. “NOAA has funded such organizations as the Ocean Conservancy and One Cool Earth that have pushed agendas harmful to America’s fishing industries. These NOAA grants were funding things such as: George Mason University’s ‘Policy Experience in Equity Climate and Health’ fellowship, a workshop for ‘transgender women and those who identify as nonbinary,’ and NOAA Climate Adaptation Partnerships, which funded webinars that promoted a children’s book ‘designed to foster conversations about climate anxiety’ as therapy.”
The proposed cuts drew immediate condemnations from conservation groups.
“The Trump administration’s proposed budget would eliminate many of the programs designed to protect our oceans – putting marine life and the marine economy at risk. Congress needs to stand up for every American who depends on healthy oceans and reject this ridiculous proposal,” Oceana Senior Director of Federal Policy Lara Levison said in a statement.
The administration is also proposing massive cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency; the budget would slash the agency's funding by more than 50 percent. According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, about half of the cuts would affect loan programs used to upgrade water treatment infrastructure and reduce pollution in the nation’s rivers and streams.
“The White House’s proposed budget would unravel decades of partnership and progress restoring the Bay and local waterways,” Chesapeake Bay Foundation President and CEO Hilary Harp Falk said in a statement. “These proposed cuts would leave already-strapped states struggling to meet their clean water commitments and manage natural resources. The budget would choke off essential restoration funding – including efforts to rebuild oyster populations and help farmers reduce polluted runoff. It would also virtually eliminate cutting-edge research and data collection critical for restoring water quality and building climate resilience.”
The 2026 budget would also eliminate NOAA Fisheries’ responsibility for ensuring fisheries’ compliance with the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, consolidating those efforts under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Ecological Services program – which is slated for a USD 37 million (EUR 32.6 million) budget cut. It would also end the Marine Mammal Commission.
“I’m truly shocked to see Trump officials trying to kill this crucial protection for whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals that just about every single American adores,” Center for Biological Diversity Oceans Director Miyoko Sakashita said in a statement. “The commission Trump wants to destroy costs taxpayers just a penny per person, which is far less than a lot of folks spend on stuffed animals. Healthy oceans depend on healthy marine mammals, and I believe most people understand that and care about the survival of these beautiful creatures.”
In a hearing for Paul Dabbar, Trump’s nominee to serve as deputy secretary of commerce, the day before the skinny budget was released, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) criticized the administration’s decision to split those responsibilities from NOAA Fisheries. During the January nomination hearing of Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, he vowed to keep NOAA Fisheries intact, telling senators he had no intention of dismantling the agency or transferring its missions to other agencies.
“I’m not sure why the most important management resource we have for our fisheries, having our science management system, we would give up to the Department of Interior,” Cantwell said. “I'm particularly shocked to see this proposal, given that Mr. Lutnick promised to me during this confirmation hearing that ‘I have no interest in separating NOAA’ and that breaking up NOAA ‘is not on my agenda.’ What changed?”
