Environmental Working Group Midwest Vice President Craig Cox has analyzed how much money states will lose if Congress goes along with President Obama's budget proposal to short the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) by $250 million in 2010:

State by State Funding Cuts, Part Deux

States to Lose Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) Funding

President Obama's proposed 2010 fiscal year budget continues the long string of broken promises that have left conservation programs billions short over the past two farm bills. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) takes the biggest hit, falling $250 million short of the funding promised in the 2008 farm bill.

EWG analyzed the shortfalls in EQIP funding that states will suffer if the cuts if Congress goes along with the cuts proposed in the President's budget.1 Fourteen states stand to lose over $6 million each in 2010 EQIP funding. The five states that stand to lose the most EQIP funding are Texas (-$22.4 million), California (-$15.5 million), Colorado (-$10.0 million), Minnesota (-$8.1 million), and Nebraska (-$8.0 million).

"Congress has a chance to break the long string of broken promises that have left conservation programs billions short over the past two farm bills," said Craig Cox, Environmental Working Group Vice President. "We still have a long way to go to reduce soil erosion, water pollution, and declining wildlife habitat on agricultural land and global warming will make these long-standing problems much harder to solve. Meanwhile, as conservation programs are chronically under-funded, commodity programs and biofuels still receive billions in federal assistance. Congress must reverse the conservation program cuts proposed in President Obama's budget and deliver the funding promised in the 2008 farm bill," Cox said.

In addition, last week EWG released Seizing a Watershed Moment, which looked at the targeting of EQIP funds in the Mississippi River Basin.