The American federal government is perhaps the largest organization in the world, with 2.8 million people on its payrolls, not including soldiers and contractors. The federal government has a presence in every state of the union and nearly every country on earth. It is involved in a huge range of activities, many of which provide generally positive social benefits.
Yet, many have long accused the federal government of being an immense source of waste. With a budget of roughly $4 trillion in recent years, Americans spend more funding their government than the combined market cap of Apple, Google, Amazon, Walmart, General Electric, and General Motors combined.
You’ll have to excuse us Americans if we blush at the enormous costs of our public services. President Trump, meanwhile, swept into office with the promise to cut the flab out of the American government. The budget agreements under Trump failed to yield much in the way of cuts, as budget extensions require funding to be maintained. However, the Trump administration has also requested that agencies themselves submit downsizing plans.
Those plans are slowly making their way to light and hint that many programs, some outdated and some perhaps not, will be on the chopping block. It remains unclear if the federal government will actually tighten its belt. However, once a permanent funding solution is reached, federal agencies can start to reshuffle their priorities to line them up with the president’s ambitions.
The United States Geological Survey is slated to close down its whooping crane rehabilitation program, for example. The whooping crane has been endangered for decades. Many conservationists credit the USGS with protecting the endangered bird from all but certain extinction. It is America’s largest species of crane.
The Biological Survey Unit is also expected to be shuttered. This unit has collected and cataloged nearly a million specimens of animals found across the United States. With a budget of $1.6 million, however, and seemingly little practical purpose, the unit is not expected to survive the chopping block.
Perhaps Trump’s supporters won’t lose sleep over the whooping crane (meanwhile, his critics will hate his choices no matter what). Some cuts might be a bit tougher for Trump’s supporters to stomach. For example, the Agriculture Department is set to drastically curtail its Rural Business-Cooperative Sevice. This service has helped many farmers transition to the modern economy.
Several other training programs are also on the chopping block. Many Americans have been looking to the president to revive the shrinking manufacturing sector. Employment in manufacturing is near historical lows. Yet the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which provides subsidies and advisory services for SME manufacturers, is likely to be shuttered.
So, too, are the 21st Century Community Learning Centers. These centers have been used to fund after-school and summer school programs with the aim of preparing students for life in the modern economy. Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP), which helps underprivileged students prep for college, is also expected to be cut.
Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker from Georgia, has been championing Trump’s ambitions. He noted: “A simple battle cry is that we need to move at the pace of technology, not the pace of bureaucracy. And for every place that moves at the pace of bureaucracy, we need to overhaul it.”
Regardless, if budget cuts do come to fruition, some people are going to feel the pinch.
