On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed President Trump’s Budget Bill sending the legislation to the President’s desk for final signage.

At The CLEO Institute, we believe budgets are moral documents. They reveal what we value and who we are willing to leave behind. The Trump administration’s proposed budget is a direct attack on the health, safety, and economic future of millions of Americans, especially those already carrying the burden of pollution, poverty, and climate risk. And “We the People” got sold out!

This bill doesn’t just cut…it guts. It’s a budget that breaks the American promise.

It strips away decades of bipartisan progress on clean air, safe water, and affordable energy, all while handing billion-dollar tax breaks to fossil fuel giants and wealthy corporations. It eliminates programs that help families stay cool during deadly heat waves. It slashes investments in clean energy and American-made innovation. It dismantles the EPA’s Environmental Justice office, silencing communities already suffering from toxic exposure, asthma, and rising floodwaters.

Here are five of the most dangerous giveaways in this so-called “budget”:

• It sells off our future. The bill permanently auctions off millions of acres of public land for drilling and mining, sacrificing biodiversity, clean water, and sacred lands to destructive development.
  
  
• It hikes our energy bills. By killing clean energy tax credits and fuel-efficiency standards, the bill will raise household electricity costs by up to $400 per year, especially hurting families already living paycheck to paycheck.
  
  
• It rigs the system. A new pay-to-play permitting scheme gives Big Oil CEOs fast-tracked approval for polluting projects while bypassing environmental review and silencing community input, all while keeping America dangerously dependent on volatile foreign oil markets.
  
• It threatens our health. The bill eliminates pollution cleanup programs for schools, trucks, and buses and slashes air monitoring funds, leaving children and frontline communities to breathe dirty air with no warning.
  
  
• It kills American jobs and gives China an advantage. The bill is projected to kill over hundreds of thousands of jobs by 2030, many in rural and working-class communities. Worse yet, just as the U.S. is gaining ground in clean energy manufacturing, this bill wipes out hundreds of thousands of future jobs and hands over our global competitive edge.

As Floridians, we know what’s at stake. We are ground zero for climate impacts: rising seas, record-breaking heat, and unaffordable energy costs driven by fossil fuel dependence. This budget abandons us at the very moment we need more investment, not less.

Let’s be clear: this is not about fiscal responsibility. It is about rigging the system, subsidizing pollution, and punishing progress. We’re racking up a climate and economic debt our kids will be forced to pay just so billionaires can cash in now.

At The CLEO Institute, we will not be deterred. We will continue organizing, educating, and advocating for bold, people-first climate action. We will fight to protect the people and places we love. And we call on every Floridian and every American to speak up because a livable future is not negotiable.