President Trump released his Fiscal Year 2019 budget request totaling $4.4 trillion on Monday along with a $1.5 trillion infrastructure proposal. The FY19 budget calls for the elimination of at least 22 agencies and programs as well as drastic cuts to both the EPA and Department of Agriculture. The infrastructure proposal focuses on public-private partnerships while the vast majority of funding is expected to come from both state and local governments. The federal government would contribute $200 billion over ten years through an incentive program that would look to leverage local and private funding. Critics expressed concern that this is not a large enough federal investment to spur these types of projects.
The federal budget release was not the only excitement happening in the White House this week. White House special assistant George David Banks resigned from his position as advisor to the president for international energy and environmental policy on Wednesday after failing to receive a permanent security clearance. Banks had previously served as an environmental official during the George W. Bush administration in addition to working on the staff of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee under Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-OK).
