spending. and, of course we will soon begin the construction of a great, great wall along our southern border. reporter: the president has said mexico will pay for it. mexico says no, but for now that s at least another $10 billion in the budget. but this may be the bold est claim about the plan. all of that without adding to the currently projected fy 2018 deficit. reporter: that s right, the administration says it can offset all those costs with savings and spending cuts. for example, up to 25% of the money for the environmental protection agency could go away. eliminating 3,000 jobs. the new administrator. we re going to roll back the regulations that have been an overreach of the past. that s going to be our focus in the near term and the budgeting process will play out. reporter: the irs, the department of education, and foreign aid are also on the chopping block. that aid is just a tiny fraction
know, for example, california, regulations are actually a lot stricter than federal laws require. if you return regulatory power to the states, which clearly you re recommending, does that mean you re willing to accept, for example, california s vehicle emissions standards? well, wolf, i think with respect to regulatory power, what we want to recognize is the authority given to the states through statute. what happened with the previous administration is a disregard of the statutory authorities given to the states so we re going to look at each of those situations on how to increase that, strengthen that and ensure there s an active, vibrant partnership to ensure clean air and clean water. will you give california its annual waiver to set its own vehicle emission standards? that s a process, wolf, that i don t want to prejudge. that s actually a rulemaking process or add min strministrai decision we ve not yet begun. that will be reviewed in due course. president, as you know,
listening to his generals about what the budgeting process has left him anemic. i m putting a word there on top of, just kind of summarizing there. they want more money for military spending. at david: they want more proper application. i have spent the last four or five years working very closely with the former army acquisition who serve in the bush years and served in the obama years for 15 months. if dean has given me an education, along with others on how this really works. a lot of reporters write the story, but don t understand what s going on. i do want to go do something, melissa, that we talk about on the business channel. i brought up this point. when you see the infrastructure stocks and the centers that are taking out 2%, 3% or so, those represent real jobs for americans. they were betting on putting mainstream to work. the politicians have gotten rich, the 23rd year of dogs have
sure water infrastructure is advanced, best way we can improve partnerships with the states. the superfund sites as far as cleanup in key areas like the port of portland and butte, montana, will continue to be a focus and discuss that through the budgeting process. let me press you. should we expect layoffs of hundreds, if not thousands, full-time epa employees, cuts of enforcement of environmental protection regulations? i think, wolf, what could yo should expect, we re going to roll back the regulations that have been an overreach in the past. that s the focus in the near term and the budgeting process will play out. the majority of the epa budget goes to the states as you correctly point out. so if the budget is slashed, how are these states going to be able to enforce critically important regulations? wolf, the focus will be on making sure that the states are adequately funded with water infrastructure in these grant proposals that we ve worked on for a number of years. as
place between the white house and congress. we ll handle it the right way and make sure that priorities of the epa are protected as we go forward. the epa grants, the states, will they continue as is or will they be drastically cut? we re actually advancing an agenda with congress that the water infrastructure grants actually continue and are strengthened. those superfund sites across the country that need to be cleaned up from portland, oregon, to butte, montana, need to be a focus of how we spend money to improve the environment. so that s going to be a continued discussion as we go through the budget process. if that s 50% of the budget, where will the cuts come from if they want to eliminate 25% of the epa budget? i think, wolf, what we need to realize is this is the beginning of the process, not the end of the process. and so that process will continue. these priorities that i ve talked about will be a focus of how we conduct ourselves at the epa. you re the administrato