Bush Budget Cuts Hit EPA, Agriculture, SBA President Bush’s 2005 budget proposal would increase funding for defense, homeland security, education and the space program, but many other agencies are targeted for cuts. The $2.4 billion dollar election-year budget would reduce Agriculture Department spending by 8%, affecting some conservation, environmental and wildlife habitat programs, USDA officials said. The president proposes trimming Environmental Protection Agency spending by 7%, including a $492 million cut in funds to build sewage treatment plans, a congressional favorite. The Small Business Administration’s discretionary budget authority would fall by 10%. (See separatestory.) The Defense Department is in line for a 7% increase, not counting the cost of maintaining troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. DOD also proposes having civilian employees or contractors take over 10,700 support jobs now held by uniformed military personnel, freeing those people for jobs more closely related to their combat missions. In the past, DOD officials have said members of the armed forces hold as many as 300,000 support jobs. The military can outsource jobs held by uniformed personnel without holding A-76 competitions. Homeland security spending would rise 10%. (See separate story.) NASA would get a 6% increase to fund the president’s initiative to go to the moon and Mars. Congress has the final word on spending, and some members were blanching at the $364 billion deficit in the Bush budget. Several conservative Republicans called for deeper spending cuts, while some Democrats accused the administration of short-changing domestic programs. While defense, homeland security and education were targeted for substantial increases, the administration said spending on other governmental functions would increase by only 0.5%, less than the rate of inflation. Seven of the 16 cabinet-level departments would get less money than this year. In another provision sure to raise hackles in Congress, the president proposes just $256 million over six years for highway and transit projects. The Senate is considering a bill that would spend $311 million on those projects. The budget “sets clear priorities: winning the war on terror, protecting our homeland, making sure our children get educated, making sure the seniors get a modern Medicare system,” President Bush said at a cabinet meeting Feb. 2. “And at the same time we’re calling upon Congress to be wise with the taxpayers’ money.”