04.28.17

First 100 Days of the Trump Presidency’s Effect on Washington State

Executive Orders, proposed budget are poised to wreak havoc on Washingtonian families and their state

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – Today, to mark the approach of President Trump’s first 100 days in office, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) released a list of policies and proposals from the Trump White House that will have serious consequences for Washington state.

In the last 100 days, President Trump has either proposed or succeeded in:

Energy and Environment

  • Ripping off taxpayers to prop up coal companies: President Trump ended a moratorium on leasing taxpayer-owned federal lands for coal mining and lowered the royalties coal companies paid.
  • Taking public lands from public hands: The Trump Administration ordered a review of national monument designations from the last 21 years, implying that he may attempt to rescind monuments like Hanford Reach. He also proposed cutting federal land acquisition under the Land and Water Conservation Fund by over 50%.
  • Paving the way for the next Deepwater Horizon: President Trump rolled out a proposal that could open all offshore areas to oil and gas drilling, including along the West Coast.
  • Stifle American innovation on renewable energy: The administration proposed cutting over half the budget of the Energy Department offices that fund research and development of renewable energy, smart grid, and energy storage, including major investments in Washington state.

Transportation

  • Cutting Eastern Washington off from train service: Amtrak’s long-distance passenger rail routes, which provide service to over 100,000 people in 6 difference communities in Eastern Washington, would be entirely eliminated under President Trump’s proposed budget.
  • Breaking promises on infrastructure: Despite insisting on the campaign trail that infrastructure was a priority, the administration’s proposed budget would eliminate or make substantial cuts to important infrastructure programs that fund 18 current projects in Washington state.
  • Making airports less safe and more of a pain: The President suggests cutting the budget for the Transportation Security Administration, putting added stress on the agency charged with protecting travelers and resulting in longer lines at Sea-Tac and Spokane. This from a candidate who made safety his signature appeal to voters.

Healthcare

  • Throwing hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians off their health insurance, including Medicaid: The President’s proposed healthcare plan would result in inaccessible health insurance for hundreds of thousands of people in Washington. It would also cut a portion of Medicaid funding and shift costs to the states, taking coverage away from many low-income patients in the state.
  • Threatening women’s health and privacy: President Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch, whose history suggests he will oppose a woman’s right to choose, to the Supreme Court. The president has also put forward a healthcare plan that would jeopardize care for 1.6 million Washington women by defunding Planned Parenthood.
  • Thwarting advances in life-saving research at UW, WSU, and Fred Hutch: The administration has suggested slashing the National Institutes of Health budget by some $6 billion. NIH is the key driver of biomedical research and economic activity in Washington state at universities and research organizations.

Banking and Finance

  • Making it harder for Seattle workers to retire: President Trump overturned a rule that would have allowed the City of Seattle to tackle the growing retirement crisis by setting up a private workplace retirement savings system. This decision will deny 200,000 Seattle workers access to the retirement savings tools they need.
  • Driving up the costs of buying a home in Washington State: The Trump administration rolled back a planned cut in Federal Housing Authority mortgage rates, costing the average Washington state borrower an average of $500 per year over the life of their mortgage.
  • Proposing tax cuts for billionaires, corporations, and himself that will raise taxes millions of Americans: President Trump recently released a tax reform “plan” that would deliver over 50% of its benefits to the top 1% and drive up the deficit by over $5 billion, while at the same time raising taxes on over 25 million hard working lower and middle class families.

Immigration

  • Sowing confusion and fear with an attempted travel ban: Chaos ensued at airports as innocent families were separated and travelers were wrongly denied entry for days before the courts overturned the administration’s misguided travel ban. Had the courts not stepped in, we would be feeling the loss of important and valuable members of our universities, companies and communities.
  • Threatening local communities’ ability to determine how to keep their people safe: President Trump signed an Executive Order withholding federal funding from so-called ‘sanctuary cities,’ jurisdictions who use their local knowledge to set law enforcement priorities that best serve their communities. 11 counties in Washington state fell under the Executive Order.

Education:

  • Imperiling low-income college students’ access to educational opportunities: A proposed $200 million reduction to the federal TRIO program would endanger the chance for 15,000 students in Washington to become the first in their families to earn college degrees.
  • Taking education and nutrition away from low-income children: Services to the 4,699 low-income children and their families who depend on the Head Start program for preschool, family support, and health and nutrition coordination will be damaged by the 18% cut in the president’s proposed budget for HHS, the agency that administers Head Start.

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