Trump’s budget to have major cuts: Reports

Washington, March 16 (IANS) US President Donald Trump intends to roll out his budget blueprint on Thursday - and it will include a 31 per cent reduction to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a 28 per cent cut to the State Department.

The EPA budget will slip from $8.2 billion to $5.6 billion - lower than it's been in four decades, the New York Times reported.

"Senior Trump officials consider the EPA the leading edge of the administration's plans to deconstruct the administrative state," an official said on Tuesday.

Officials told The New York Post the State Department faces a 28 per cent reduction.

Trump's first budget will also feature substantial increases in spending for the Department of Defence, Department of Homeland Security, law enforcement and school choice.

The Defence Department will see an increase of about 10 per cent and the Department of Homeland Security's budget will go up by about six per cent.

The cuts will hit the 60-year-old State Department Food for Peace Program, which sends food to poor countries hit by war or natural disasters, and will eliminate the Department of Transportation's Essential Air Service program, which subsidises flights to rural airports, the Times reported.

Other cuts would affect Amtrak, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the $3 billion Community Development Block Grant program, which funds popular programs like Meals on Wheels.