Our federal lands and wildlife belong to us. Our public tax dollars should be going towards our shared natural resources and ensuring their protection for generations to come. However, the Trump administration’s proposed 2027 federal budget fails our wildlife and us by cutting endangered species program funding by 22%.
We often hear from politicians in the Trump administration that too much federal funding goes towards unnecessary programs like protecting and recovering our endangered species. Yet in the same breath, the Trump administration is draining federal funding on handouts for private fossil fuel companies – an over $4 billion per year increase in subsidies for the fossil fuel industry came from the Trump administration in 2025 alone.
This summer, Congress is reviewing the President’s proposed budget and considering how to allocate our federal tax dollars in 2027, also called the appropriations process. Congressional committees hold hearings to discuss agency budgets and invite agency leaders to explain the President’s proposal. In June, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik, a Trump political appointee, spoke on the budget to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. When asked about cuts to endangered species recovery programs, Nesvik repeatedly said, “Our priority is to reduce federal spending.”
Yet, our federal tax dollars should be prioritized to protect our shared resources. “A mere 5 percent of mammal biomass on this planet is still wild. We are living through a biodiversity crash – often called a sixth mass extinction. This mass extinction is unique because it’s being driven primarily by human activity: climate change, deforestation, habitat destruction, pollution, overexploitation, and more. We need to do better by what wildlife remains,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. “How much of God’s creation must be a sacrifice to the worship of fossil fuels?”
