In mid-March, President Trump released his proposed $1 trillion federal budget. The proposed Trump Budget, while increasing the Pentagon’s war budget by $54 billion and allocating $1.4 billion to upgrade the U.S. nuclear arsenal (under the Department of Energy), includes the following:

• 31 percent cut in EPA’s budget (laying off over 3,000 scientists);
• 20 percent cut in the National Institute of Health’s budget;
• 21 percent cut in the Department of Agriculture’s budget;
• 13.2 percent cut in the Department of Housing and Urban Development budget, which will eliminate programs like Meals on Wheels;
• 28 percent cut in the State Department’s budget, especially from the diplomatic core and foreign aid programs;
• Complete elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities;
• Ending all grants for rural water projects and funds for local transit systems;
• And allocating $4.1 billion for building the border wall with Mexico.

This anti-human war budget, with its inevitable disastrous consequences, has caused serious concern among the citizens not only of the United States but also of the world. People across the country are raising their voices of opposition in various ways and are mobilizing against the passage of Trump Budget by the Congress.

The cities of New Haven, CT, Charlottesville, VA, and Montgomery County, MD, have passed resolutions against the proposed Trump Budget, and Pittsburg, PA, and Ann Arbor, MI, have denounced the “cuts” to various Federal agencies and programs.

We encourage local coalitions like your own to mobilize and join the at least five cities that have already registered their opposition to Trump Budget.

It is urgent for all of us to contact our Congressional representatives and Senators and demand that the Trump Budget be discarded and a pro-peace, pro-people budget be passed. We urge all of our supporters in all cities around the country to joint forces and work in coalition with all other peace and justice organizations and activists to get anti-Trump-Budget city resolutions passed in their area.

We also urge you to sign petitions, write op-ed letters, hold rallies and press conferences, and organize local teach-ins to educate and mobilize the public opinion about the serious dangers of the passage of Trump Budget.

Please take a look at the following resources to help with your campaign

• Sign our petition opposing Trump’s plan to cut social programs to increase military spending by $54 Billion

• Sign up for CodePink’s #No54BillionForWar campaign

• Watch the webinar on city/mayor resolutions by #No54BillionForWar partners

• Use World Beyond War’s organizing template and review sample resolutions to pass in your local government

• See video of what Charlottesville, VA residents said before their city government when making the case for their successful campaign

• Use National Priorities Project’s cost of militarism local trade-offs tool

If you support UFPJ’s never-ending work for peace and justice, please make a contribution today, to help us carry-on and expand the success of our campaigns