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EPA Receives Hundreds of Cookies From Concerned Citizens Fearing Trump Budget Cuts

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March 20, 2017

The Environmental Protection Agency received hundreds of cookies last week from concerned citizens fearing the Trump administration would slash its funding as part of the president's budget proposal.

The cookie packages had a message on the label that was addressed to the "EPA Staff" from "America."

"Thank you so much for all you do. You save lives. You make the world better," the packaging read.

"On the back of each package of chocolate chip cookies was a personalized story from people from around the country who suffer from asthma and other ailments," according to the Washington Examiner.

Donald Trump's budget plan, which was released on Thursday, calls for cutting the EPA's budget by 31 percent and laying off 3,200 agency employees.

The director of the White House Office on Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, indicated Thursday that the president's views on climate change largely dictated the cuts to EPA funding.

"As to climate change, I think the president was fairly straightforward, we are not spending money on that anymore," Mulvaney said. "We consider that to be a waste of your money."

The EPA has had a controversial history that may have also contributed to the proposed budget cuts.

In 2015, the EPA dumped one million gallons of wastewater into the Colorado river. EPA officials were using heavy machinery to look around the Gold King Mine when they triggered the release of wastewater containing heavy metals.

"It doesn't look like water; it just looks like sludge," said Deputy Stephen Lowrance of the San Juan County Sheriff's Office at the time.

The EPA was reportedly investigating the matter.

In September 2016, it was reported that senior EPA officials did not take action after an intern filed a complaint alleging that an environmental scientist at the agency sexually harassed her.

The following month, a notorious pornography watcher at the EPA admitted to masturbating while at work, the Washington Free Beacon reported, citing documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The employee was a geologist in the EPA's Office of Air and Radiation and spent an average of two to six hours a day watching porn on the job.

In stark contrast to Trump's proposed EPA budget cuts, the Obama administration created many new regulations that led the EPA to impose nearly 200 million hours of paperwork to comply.