U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday proposed $14 billion in spending on initiatives to fight climate change in the 2022 budget, including large cash injections for environmental regulation and science research.
Gavino Garay reports.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday unveiled a budget proposal that represents a sharp reversal to former President Donald Trump's budget objectives.
The proposal - what's known as an early 'skinny' version of his 2022 federal budget - increases discretionary spending by 8.4% compared to 2021 levels, and asks Congress to sharply increase spending to combat climate change and gun violence and to support education.
The $1.5 trillion budget would invest billions more in public transportation and environmental clean-ups, expand funding for background checks on gun sales, and direct a record amount to underfunded public schools.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Friday said the budget quote "makes things fairer," and "injects capital into communities where capital is usually hard to come by." Biden would increase spending by $14 billion across agencies to deal with the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, a shift from the Trump administration's dismissal of climate science.
The president would spend millions on dealing with humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
But not a single dollar for the construction of a border wall - a hallmark item from Trump's presidency missing from this budget.
The budget would instead increase funding for investigation of immigration agents accused of "white supremacy." Making up about half of the U.S. discretionary budget, military and defense spending would increase by 1.7% to $753 billion.
The White House had been delayed in producing the document, blaming resistance from political officials during the handover from Trump.
The proposal does not include Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure proposal or changes in taxation.
Those changes would likely be included in a full budget to be submitted in late spring.
