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.

D.C. Circuit Panel Appears Split On Litigation Over EPA’s ‘Green Bank’ Funds

A panel of D.C. Circuit judges appears split on whether to let stand a lower court decision that would allow recipients of $20 billion in grants under EPA’s “green bank” program to regain access to their awards, with at least one Trump-appointed judge signaling she is likely to rule in EPA’s favor. During May 19 arguments, Judge Nina Pillard, an Obama appointee, generally embraced claims from the grant recipients, while Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, indicated alignment with EPA...

EPA Admits Defeat On APA Violations In Grant Freeze, Termination Case

The Trump administration is not contesting plaintiffs’ claims that EPA’s freezes and terminations of certain climate and environmental justice (EJ) grants are illegal under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), an apparent concession that could have broader consequences for the litigation challenging those freezes. In a May 16 filing in The Sustainability Institute, et al. v. Donald Trump, et al. -- brought by cities and nonprofits in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina -- Justice Department...

House Democrats Warn EPA Budget Plan Will Devastate State Agencies

House Democratic appropriators are warning that the Trump EPA’s proposal to slash categorical grants to state environmental agencies would devastate environmental protections nationwide and might even force states to give up their primary implementation of federal environmental laws and force EPA to resume those tasks. EPA’s categorical grants fund state agencies that are responsible for implementing approximately 90 percent of federal environmental programs. But the Trump administration’s May 2 “skinny” budget proposal asks Congress to cut $1 billion from that...

Zeldin Faces Bipartisan Skepticism From Appropriators On FY26 Budget

Senate appropriators from both parties are expressing concern about the Trump administration’s proposed steep cuts to EPA’s budget in fiscal year 2026, particularly funding for state water infrastructure and environment programs, with one top Republican suggesting the proposal is “unserious.” In his first appearance before Congress since his confirmation, Administrator Lee Zeldin testified at a May 14 hearing of a Senate Appropriations panel, defending the Trump administration’s May 2 “ skinny” budget proposal . That plan cuts the Clean Water...

Plaintiffs Doubt EPA Grant Reviews, Undercutting Funding Freeze Rationale

Environmentalists are charging that EPA documents obtained in discovery show the agency is not conducting the “individualized reviews” that courts have required before officials cancel grants, a claim that threatens to broadly undermine a key rationale for the mass freezes and terminations related to environmental justice (EJ) and climate change. Plaintiffs in The Sustainability Institute, et al. v. Donald Trump, et al. , pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, argue that an enormous...

Environmentalists Charge EPA Using Grants To Suppress Climate, EJ Speech

Environmentalists are charging that EPA is using its grants as leverage to pressure them into scrubbing disfavored ideas and “forbidden terms,” including climate change and environmental justice (EJ), from both grant-funded projects and those not receiving federal funding -- even if it means violating their missions or the grants’ original purpose. By requiring nonprofits “to remove terms like ‘environmental justice,’ ‘climate change,’ and ‘equity’ from their grant materials, and suppressing how groups speak about their own work externally, the EPA...

Utilities Lobby To Maintain SRF Funds As States Fear Effects Of Trump Cuts

Water utilities are lobbying Congress to maintain level funding for EPA’s clean water and drinking water state revolving loan fund (SRF) programs as a new analysis shows that key Northeast and Midwest states will likely face significant cuts to their infrastructure programs as a result of the Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts. At issue is the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2026 budget request , which seeks to slash $2.46 billion from EPA’s Clean and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (SRF),...

Democratic States, Environmentalists Warn EPA Against Eliminating IRIS

Democratic states and public interest groups are raising alarm about congressional and Trump administration efforts to eliminate or sideline EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program, saying such actions would weaken public health, allow for the political management of agency science and lead to regulatory uncertainty and inconsistency. The warnings come as EPA is moving to eliminate its Office of Research and Development (ORD) -- which houses IRIS and other research functions -- and fire over half its employees, sending...

Federal Judge Blocks EPA Reorganization, Staff Firings As DOJ Quickly Appeals

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s firings and reorganizations at EPA and other federal agencies -- a move which could block Administrator Lee Zeldin’s high-profile effort to eliminate the agency's research office and make other structural and personnel changes -- though the Justice Department (DOJ) quickly appealed the decision. Judge Susan Illston -- a Clinton appointee to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California – issued a May 9 order granting environmental and labor plaintiffs’...

States Seek SRF Flexibilities As EPW Prepares Bipartisan Reauthorization

State drinking water officials are urging lawmakers on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) to incorporate additional flexibilities into EPA’s state revolving fund (SRF) program, measures that could be critical as the Trump administration seeks to slash the program’s annual appropriations. Flexibility “with future funding will be critical to achieving the goal of helping systems and communities that need the funding the most, Eric Oswald, president of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (ASDWA), told EPW’s April...

House GOP Weighs Brownfields Cuts As Democrats Fear Cleanup Delays

Some congressional Republicans appear skeptical of maintaining funding levels for EPA’s traditionally bipartisan brownfields program, as Democrats warn that President Donald Trump’s proposed 55 percent cuts to the agency will hamstring the program’s efforts to clean and redevelop contaminated areas. “In November, the American people spoke loud and clear,” Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), chair of the House transportation committee’s Water Resources and Environment subcommittee, told a May 7 hearing on the brownfields law, which expires this year. “First of all,...

GOP Urged To Save Muni Bond Tax Waiver Amid Water Infrastructure Fears

State and water utility officials are pressing House Republicans to preserve tax exemptions for interest on municipal bonds in upcoming budget reconciliation legislation, warning that eliminating the exemption would threaten a key source of funding for drinking water and clean water infrastructure. Targeting the exemption is “no longer a fringe idea,” Jarron Brady, policy analyst at the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), told the Council of Infrastructure Financing Authorities’ summit on water infrastructure last month. “It is a target, and...

Industry, Environmentalists Oppose EPA’s Planned Closure Of Energy Star

Industry groups and environmentalists are opposing EPA’s reported plans to close its popular Energy Star program that promotes efficient home appliances and buildings, a move the Trump administration is taking as part of a broad reorganization of the agency focusing on statutory mandates. However, the voluntary Energy Star program, launched in 1992, was codified by Congress as part of the 2005 Energy Policy Act and thus could be difficult to shutter. Multiple news reports say EPA is planning to eliminate...

Critics Say Staff, Budget Cuts Will ‘Sabotage’ Key State, EPA Functions

Environmentalists and other critics are warning that Trump administration plans to downsize and re-organize EPA, in addition to a requested 55 percent budget cut, would decimate the agency’s ability to carry out its basic functions and protect public health, citing the gutting of the research office and enormous proposed cuts to state assistance funds. “This is not restructuring, this is sabotage,” said Michelle Roos, executive director of the Environmental Protection Network (EPN) representing EPA alumni, at a May 5 press...

EPA Unveils Agency-Wide Reorganization Affecting Major Program Offices

EPA is announcing a major reorganization in line with orders from President Donald Trump to eliminate staff, slash funding and restructure federal agencies, unveiling plans to reform the administrator’s office as well as the air, water, and chemical offices while gutting the research office and moving many of its scientists elsewhere or firing them. In a May 2 announcement , EPA says planned changes include shifting research functions to program offices; creating an office to work with states on air...

Trump FY26 Budget Seeks Steep Cuts To Superfund, ORD, State Assistance

President Donald Trump’s fiscal year 2026 budget request outlines steep cuts to EPA spending, with the hardest-hit areas including categorical grants to states, the Superfund program, the Office of Research and Development (ORD) and funds for water infrastructure. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) May 2 released the so-called “ skinny budget ,” a pared-back version of the administration’s request, with a more-detailed version slated for release later. Despite his administration’s commitment to work more closely with...

EJ Advocates Say DOJ Wrongly Axed Septic System Program As ‘DEI’

Environmental justice (EJ) advocates say the Department of Justice (DOJ) wrongly ended a landmark Biden-era civil rights agreement with Alabama’s public health department after incorrectly determining that the program, which provided septic systems in a low-income rural area, is a “diversity, equity & inclusion” (DEI) initiative that Trump officials oppose. The advocates say they are happy that state officials say they want to continue the program even if DOJ does not but now must scramble to find another source to...

OIG to investigate EPA EJ grant program

EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) is launching an evaluation of the agency’s oversight of “Community Change” grant applications, which were distributed by the now-shuttered Office of Environmental Justice & External Civil Rights (OEJECR) to bolster EJ areas. OIG issued an April 29 notice to Theresa Segovia, deputy assistant administrator of OEJECR, that says it initiated the evaluation “based on an OIG Hotline complaint.” The office will “determine whether the EPA implemented effective controls during the selection of Track I...

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