Budget

EPA's annual appropriations funding sets the tone for the scope of the agency's agenda during each fiscal year. Our Budget section tracks the latest news on how the agency is implementing its existing dollars and how future budgets may affect its work.

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EPA's annual appropriations funding sets the tone for the scope of the agency's agenda during each fiscal year. Our Budget section tracks the latest news on how the agency is implementing its existing dollars and how future budgets may affect its work.

FY25 Marks Start Of Trump EPA Plan To Strip Climate, EJ From SRF Funds

EPA’s fiscal year 2025 allotment of state revolving loan funds (SRF) marks the start of Trump administration efforts to strip Biden-era climate and environmental justice (EJ) mandates from water infrastructure projects funded via the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), though officials say they plan to impose formal prohibitions on such funds in FY26. EPA last month issued final allotment tables for clean and drinking water SRF funding from the BIL general supplemental and emerging contaminants capitalization grants, as well as base...

Staff Cuts, Court-Ordered Deadlines Strain EPA’s Ability To Implement TSCA

EPA’s chemicals office is straining to carry out some TSCA functions amid President Donald Trump’s staff cuts and a heavy court-mandated risk evaluation workload, and is likely to pare back many of its non-required functions, one TSCA expert says. “There are some really significant departures that are going to make EPA’s job more difficult,” Richard Engler, director of chemistry at industry law firm Bergeson & Campbell, said at a June 23 session of the Household and Commercial Products Association’s (HCPA’s)...

EPA Reorganization On Hold Pending Outcome Of Unions’ Legal Challenge

EPA officials say the agency has pulled back on implementing a controversial reorganization plan unveiled by Administrator Lee Zeldin last month pending the outcome of litigation brought by the government employees’ union challenging the lawfulness of President Donald Trump’s executive order on reorganizing and downsizing federal agencies. In a statement to Inside EPA , the agency says it is complying with a federal court’s preliminary injunction blocking implementation of Trump’s order to allow the legal challenge to proceed, saying officials...

Indiana DEM Chief Optimistic Congress Won’t Cut EPA’s State Grants

Clint Woods, Indiana’s environment commissioner and a former top EPA official in the first Trump administration, is optimistic that Congress will reject the agency’s request to slash crucial grants that allow states to operate their own programs, a move that would avert states’ warnings that they would be forced to return delegated programs to EPA. “From the signals we’ve gotten, I’m pretty confident that Congress recognizes the values of those investments,” Woods, who became commissioner of the Indiana Department of...

Judge Rules EPA Must Release EJ Grants After Termination Violated APA

A federal judge has ordered the release of $180 million in EPA-terminated environmental justice (EJ) grants, ruling that EPA’s attempt to terminate the congressionally mandated funds violated both the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The judge is also rejecting the Trump administration’s claim that the case belongs in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, which can provide monetary relief in contracts disputes but cannot weigh APA or constitutional issues -- the latest in a series...

States Emerge As Bulwark Against Trump’s EPA Deregulatory Agenda

State regulators are emerging as a bulwark to the Trump EPA’s deregulatory agenda, arguing to lawmakers and EPA that proposed budget cuts and regulatory rollbacks could jeopardize, or at least complicate, key Trump administration goals of expanded energy production and streamlined permitting requirements being touted as economic imperatives. “Given the Administration’s emphasis on domestic manufacturing and needed increases in electrical generation, the most efficient mechanism to meet the [Clean Air Act (CAA)] requirements for new manufacturing and energy projects is...

States Urge Proactive Engagement With EPA In Superfund Site Transitions

A new report from state waste officials is urging regulators to be more proactive in preparing to take over management of Superfund-financed cleanups from EPA through multiple steps of the process to avoid cost overruns and other concerns that have plagued such cleanups. Use of the Superfund trust fund in cleanups requires states to assume responsibility for long-term operation and maintenance (O&M) after a remedy is constructed. But often, “the costs associated with O&M are not fully understood until late...

GOP State Air Regulators Say EPA Budget Would Obstruct Trump Agenda

Air regulators from predominantly Republican-led states are warning Senate appropriators that the Trump administration’s proposal to slash EPA’s budget would “devastate economic development” by depriving states of funds for permitting and other essential activities, which in turn would obstruct the administration’s deregulatory agenda. “Eliminating or dramatically reducing this funding would devastate economic development (i.e. reduced capacity of air permitting staff and programs), critical infrastructure (i.e. ambient air monitoring networks), and environmental protections across AACPA’s membership,” says written testimony from the...

Whitehouse backs plaintiffs’ push for en banc review in funding freeze case

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the top Democrat on the Senate environment committee, is backing calls from cities and nonprofits for an appellate court to rehear en banc a panel decision to stay a lower-court injunction on the Trump EPA’s freezes and terminations of grant funds. Whitehouse filed a June 17 amicus brief in support of en banc review in The Sustainability Institute, et al. v. Donald Trump, et al. His filing comes after the U.S. Court of...

ECOS Renews Warning On State Delegations Due To Trump EPA’s FY26 Cuts

The Environmental Council of States (ECOS), which represents state environmental commissioners, is renewing its warning that states may need to reconsider their implementation of federal environmental programs in light of the massive cuts to states that Trump EPA’s fiscal year 2026 budget requests. “Dramatic budget cuts to EPA that are passed along to states will incapacitate state environmental programs while creating massive uncertainty for state legislatures and regulated entities across the United States,” James Kenney, cabinet secretary of the New...

Utilities seek EPA guide allowing SRF for smart technologies

Water utilities are urging congressional appropriators to include report language attached to EPA’s fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill directing the to issue guidance clarifying that they can use state revolving loan fund (SRF) monies to support “smart” technologies, such as advanced metering and real-time controls A coalition of six water utility groups sent a June 12 letter to Reps. Mike Simpson (R-ID) and Chellie Pingree (D-ME), chairman and ranking member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Interior and Environment, seeking...

Judge Weighs Releasing Detailed EPA Reorganization, Regulatory Plans

A federal judge is weighing whether to order the public release of detailed reorganization plans at EPA and other agencies, documents that could provide a more-detailed picture of the Trump administration’s plans to overhaul EPA, including regulatory plans and the fate of regional offices, research facilities and enforcement efforts. If released, the documents could also shine further light on plaintiffs’ claims on whether, or the extent to which, the White House pressured Administrator Lee Zeldin to make deeper-than-proposed cuts, including...

North Dakota DEQ Chief Eager To Work With EPA Amid Budget Cut Worry

Dave Glatt, director of North Dakota’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), says he is happy to be working with the Trump EPA, which he expects will “let states run with a lot of things,” though he continues to worry over the impact of dramatic proposed budget cuts from the agency for crucial state grant programs. In a June 6 interview with Inside EPA , Glatt says he is extremely concerned about EPA’s plan to slash state grant programs under Administrator...

Trump’s Energy Agenda Shapes Downsizing, Restructuring Of EPA

President Donald Trump’s push for expanded energy production, particularly fossil fuels, and streamlined environmental permitting to approve those projects, are central to the administration’s restructuring and realignment of EPA, according to recent budget documents and lawmakers reviewing the agency’s proposed spending cuts. “The FY 2026 President’s Budget prioritizes actions that reduce barriers to achieving the goal of energy independence,” says EPA’s fiscal year 2026 budget plan which offers new details on the Trump administration’s plans for restructuring EPA. The Trump...

EPA Plans Major Shift In Economic Analysis To Align With Deregulatory Goals

EPA’s recent budget proposal includes significant changes for how major economic analyses are conducted, including establishing first-time plans to evaluate the benefits of avoiding negative consequences from strict regulations in order to bolster deregulatory measures that are “consistent with current policy goals and priorities.” EPA’s May 30 budget request for fiscal year 2026 outlines plans to dramatically change how EPA conducts economic analyses based on employment and offshoring consequences of regulations. This includes what appears to be new considerations of...

Lawmakers Counter Newsom Budget Plan For Climate Funds, Cap & Trade

California lawmakers are advancing a counter-proposal to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) fiscal year 2025-26 budget plan, reducing by $1 billion spending from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) for firefighting activities, and moving the extension of the cap-and-trade program from the budget process to policy committees for more discussion. “We’ve taken a more balanced approach to the governor’s request to transfer $1.5 billion [from GGRF to CalFire] and we’ve limited that to $500 million . . . coming out of...

States’ PFAS Work Likely To Suffer Under EPA’s FY26 Budget Cuts

EPA’s plan to slash funding for state environmental and water infrastructure programs in its fiscal year 2026 budget is expected to significantly undercut states’ abilities to finance upgrades to drinking water systems to meet upcoming PFAS requirements and may undermine state efforts to regulate PFAS on their own, utility and other sources say. “We knew the Trump administration would gut the EPA staff and funding but hoped that states would take the lead on [per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)] in...

Trump's EPA Redefining The Role Of The Environment In Public Policy

The Trump administration’s unprecedented effort to roll back EPA and other agencies’ environmental rules, reorganize offices and cut budgets and staff marks a massive redefinition of environment’s role in federal policymaking. Beginning June 24, we'll launch a new section of Inside EPA that steps back from the day-to-day and brings focus and perspective to the bigger picture; the remaking of EPA. The second Trump administration's first 100 days were characterized by a sweeping reversal of the federal government’s commitment...

OPM Proposal Would Politicize EPA Hiring, Firing Decisions, Critics Warn

Current and former EPA employees, including several past administrators, are warning that the Trump administration’s proposal to reclassify thousands of federal workers to allow at-will firings will politicize the civil service, promote corruption, increase fears of retaliation and irreparably damage agency expertise. They also charge it is unlawful, arguing it overreads civil-service statutes and exceeds executive authority under the so-called major questions doctrine. The Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) proposed rule “will lead to the incredibly destructive loss . ...

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