Big changes are coming to federal agencies. Or maybe it’s lots of little changes. Now that Congress has cut a budget deal covering 2018 and 2019, the appropriations bills expected to be approved next month will enable the Trump administration to proceed with plans to slash and reorganize federal programs, The Washington Post reports.
The administration has been “largely prevented” from making such moves while the government was operating under a series of short-term funding bills that for the most part required agencies to maintain funding for existing programs. That will soon change and “the bureaucratic bloodletting can officially begin,” the Post’s Juliet Eilperin writes. “Dozens of long-standing programs are slated for termination, and every agency, large and small, has submitted a plan to the White House for reorganization.”
One example of the programs soon to be on the chopping block: The Biological Survey Unit of the U.S. Geological Survey, which collects and catalogues specimens of North American amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The unit has an annual budget of about $1.6 million and six researchers, according to the Post. Its collection and data are used for a variety of scientific research studies.
