Defenders of Wildlife today condemned the Trump administration’s reckless FY27 budget proposal that calls on Congress to slash critical funding vital to wildlife conservation. Chris Westfall, senior government relations legislative counsel at Defenders of Wildlife, released the following statement in response:
“The administration is yet again demanding that an overworked and grossly understaffed federal workforce do more with less. The proposed budget recklessly consolidates U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and National Marine Fisheries without the needed resources to preserve scientific expertise, opens our lands and waters to extractive industries and hollows out the already strained workforce that provide crucial conservation work. This proposed budget pushes us further in the wrong direction — potentially triggering even more staff layoffs and providing less resources for wildlife conservation, which are pivotal to recovering America’s imperiled species. Our nation’s lands and the wildlife that depend on them for habitat deserve better than to be ignored by agencies that are shells of their former selves.”
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For nearly 80 years, Defenders of Wildlife has worked to protect and restore America’s wildlife at risk of extinction, advancing a vision of a future in which wildlife thrives, sustained by broad public support and a resilient network of healthy lands and waters. With a network of more than 2 million supporters, Defenders is an advocate for innovative solutions to safeguard wildlife for generations to come. To learn more, please visit https://defenders.org/newsroom or follow us on Instagram @defendersofwildlife.
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