The following editorial originally appeared in The Seattle Times:
Voters in Washington should not be fooled by former President Donald Trump’s and running mate JD Vance’s attempts to downplay their connection to the 900-plus page Project 2025. It’s more than a proposal or even a plan. The name says it all: Project 2025 Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise.
And while it is national in scope, should Trump win and implement the mandate, it would be felt throughout this state. At least three areas in which Project 2025 would impact Washington are the environment, education and health care.
As it relates to the environment, the Heritage Foundation-published document would make it harder for the Environmental Protection Agency to, well, protect us.
The proposal calls for the elimination of several offices within the EPA, including the Office for Civil Rights and environmental justice, two functions that help safeguard communities of color from environmental exploitation by corporate polluters.
The mandate also calls for the immediate firing of “the newest hires in low-value programs.” The “value” is of course subjective to the conservative policy wonks who wrote the mandate. Each regional EPA office would have a politically appointed chief of staff, and the appointee positions would also extend to specialty labs.
The mandate would also expand offshore gas and oil drilling in public waters, disband the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and “fully commercialize its forecasting operations” at the National Weather Service.
Project 2025 would abolish the Department of Education, which under the plan would have little use since the mandate’s creators also call for vouchers. The plan would allow every parent to establish education savings accounts for elementary and secondary education that would be funded with the public dollars each child is already allotted for public school.
The argument is that vouchers would give parents choices, thus the competition would force improvement among all schools. But under Project 2025’s voucher plan, the “choice” would rest with the private school. Thus the private or religious schools could pick the top-tier students and athletes and leave the others in public schools with even fewer resources.
Project 2025 also would reduce the number of Washington school children who are served free lunch or snacks during the summer. That’s because it would end the federal program that provides such meals during the summer, unless the child is enrolled in summer school.
When it comes to health care, Project 2025 flatly claims abortion is not health care. But most Washington voters and lawma–kers know it is. The Project also calls for the Federal Drug Administration to reverse its approval of the abortion drug mifepristone.
The document, written in part by some of Trump’s former appointees, is purposefully vague in certain areas to allow for wiggle room as it is debated. Trump and Vance have shied away from it. Trump said he knows nothing about it. But Washington voters are too smart to be fooled. Besides, Project 2025 is in writing.
