WASHINGTON (April 18, 2017) – Television ads launched today across Montana warn that budget cuts sought by the Trump administration could threaten the health of rural Montanans by cutting vital water programs and cost jobs by harming the state’s lucrative outdoor economy. The ads, sponsored by the NRDC Action Fund, ask viewers to contact Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) to urge him to fight the Trump budget.
“Everybody wants access to clean and safe drinking water, but if President Trump gets his way, vital funding for water programs serving rural Montana could be eliminated. And the president’s proposed cuts to the Department of the Interior could do serious damage to our national parks and Montana’s outdoor industry, which could mean fewer jobs in the state,” said Kevin Curtis, executive director of the NRDC Action Fund, a national environmental advocacy group.
The Trump administration has proposed dramatic cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of the Interior and other agencies charged with protecting public health and public lands. In Montana, programs such as the USDA Rural Water Program, which provided Montana more than $13 million in infrastructure grants in FY 2016, are eliminated under a budget blueprint recently issued by the Trump administration.
