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.

Judge Orders Halt To EPA Firings, Reinstatement Of Probationary Workers

A federal judge in Maryland has ordered EPA and other agencies to halt firings of federal employees and swiftly reinstate scores of probationary workers, nearly 400 of whom the agency dismissed last month as part of a broader administration-wide purge of such employees. Judge James Bredar of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued a March 13 temporary restraining order requiring EPA and over a dozen federal agencies to stay “all purported terminations of Affected Probationary Employees...

EPA Staff Cuts Could Jeopardize Broad Deregulatory Push, Observers Say

Multiple observers say the Trump administration’s plan to significantly cut EPA staffing levels and budget could jeopardize the agency’s sweeping deregulatory agenda, while environmentalists are also blasting the plans as sharply at odds with the agency’s mission to protect the environment and public health. “You need the programmatic expertise and the legal expertise to write compelling explanations for what you’re doing,” Thomas Lorenzen, an attorney with Crowell & Moring who previously served in the Justice Department (DOJ) environment section, says...

Judge Leaves Door Open For Reinstating Fired EPA Probationary Workers

A federal judge is ordering the reinstatement of fired probationary workers at six federal agencies including the Department of Energy and Department of the Interior, while also leaving the door open for a broader decision that would reinstate such workers at EPA and other agencies. Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a March 13 bench ruling that said the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and its acting director “have no authority...

Lawmakers Attack Newsom Request To Give CARB Broad New Fee Power

California lawmakers are heavily criticizing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) proposal to give the California Air Resources Board (CARB) powerful new authority to assess a range of fees on regulated industries, arguing the move would essentially bypass proper legislative consideration of significant policy and fiscal issues while raising costs. “I think this is overly broad -- it feels like you’re asking us for a blank check,” said Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Irvine) during a March 12 hearing of the Assembly budget subcommittee...

After Freezing Funds, Trump EPA Cancels ‘Green Bank’ Grant Agreements

EPA has canceled grant agreements for recipients of most of the agency’s multi-billion dollar Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GHGRF), following weeks of Trump EPA criticisms of the program and pressure on a private bank to freeze GHGRF accounts that it was managing on behalf of the agency. In a March 11 press release , the agency says it has “identified material deficiencies which pose an unacceptable risk to the lawful execution of these grants.” The release adds that canceling the...

House Democrats Downplay Need For SRF Flexibilities Amid Looming Cuts

House Democrats are downplaying calls from utilities and states seeking additional flexibilities when using funds from EPA’s clean water state revolving funds (SRF) and other water infrastructure financing programs given concerns that the Trump administration is planning to cut 65 percent of EPA’s budget. “We've got to get real here,” Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) told a March 11 House hearing. “All of this nice legislation and improvements, of which two of them are mine . . . they're important, they're...

Zeldin Says Budget Cuts Will Hit Only 35 Percent Of Total FY24 Spending

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is renewing his pledge to cut at least 65 percent of EPA’s total spending, but he is also downplaying concerns regarding the significance of such cuts, saying that it will require reductions of less than 35 percent from core fiscal year 2024 spending given cuts to one-time funding under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Zeldin posted a video on March 11 to his X account, emphasizing his commitment to President Donald Trump, Congress and the American...

EPA Prepares For Next Phase Of Trump, DOGE Staff Cuts, Reorganization

The Trump administration’s dramatic staff cuts at EPA are set to move into their next phase, as agency leaders and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) personnel work to draw up a new round of extensive plans for agency reorganization and large-scale reductions in force (RIFs) by March 13. Though EPA has so far kept such plans under wraps, and may not publicly release them even once they are completed, conservative groups that have long pushed for such overhauls hope they...

ORD Chief Touts Benefits Of PFAS Research But Funding Remains Uncertain

RALEIGH -- EPA’s top research official is advising Administrator Lee Zeldin on the importance of state and federal collaboration in advancing PFAS research but amid the agency’s newly announced review of its grant programs under the Trump administration, officials are still discussing funding for such efforts in the future. “This is a big topic of conversation, and I think there will be some follow-up work in this space. What that exactly will look like, I can't say at this point,”...

Push For Year-Round E15 Faces Uncertainty Amid Broader Budget Battle

A legislative push by biofuels supporters and some oil sector groups to authorize year-round 15 percent ethanol fuel (E15) is facing renewed uncertainty as prospects for the measure to pass as part of a stopgap spending measure fade, scotching hopes of a quick passage through Congress and sending supporters looking for other legislative vehicles. Backers of bipartisan, bicameral bills seeking year-round E15 had earlier pinned their hopes on attaching the legislation to a larger, must-pass bill, such as a continuing...

Trump DOJ Appeals Funding Freeze Order As Group Files ‘Green Bank’ Suit

The Trump administration is appealing the recently issued preliminary injunction that seeks to unwind its categorical freeze of federal grants at EPA and other agencies after the lower court specifically targeted for release billions in Biden-era energy, environment and infrastructure grants. Meanwhile, a nonprofit clean energy financing group is seeking a similar court order to block EPA and Citibank from freezing its access to a multi-billion-dollar grant obligated under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), saying the bank is illegally withholding...

Personnel, Funding Cuts Threaten To Hamstring EPA’s Superfund Program

Trump administration efforts to slash EPA’s workforce and cut its budget are threatening to further delay already slow-going Superfund work, experts say, with some warning that such steps could disrupt and even halt site cleanup work altogether. “Superfund work is already extremely slow,” one former state official tells Inside EPA . But despite some progress being made at sites, “I fully expect that to grind to a halt, whether a result of funding or just the large scale cutting back...

EPA Orders Broad Review Of Existing Grants As Court Lifts Funding Freeze

EPA is directing agency personnel to immediately conduct a broad review of all relevant grant programs, awards and grants that have not yet been awarded to ensure their compliance and consistency with administration policy and priorities, and prevent any possible criminal or other violations. The measure threatens billions of dollars in funds just as a federal court has temporarily lifted the administration’s broad funding freeze, which had already stopped the flow of vast sums of money the last administration had...

Judge Issues Broad Injunction Ordering Release Of Frozen IRA, BIL Funds

A federal judge in Rhode Island has issued a broad injunction blocking the Trump administration freeze of federal funds at EPA and other agencies and ordering officials to release billions of dollars in Biden-era energy and environment funds that were blocked after President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Chief Judge John McConnell, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island issued a March 6 ruling in State of New York, et al. v. Donald Trump, et al....

Fotouhi Says 65 Percent EPA Budget Cut Includes IRA Funds, Limiting Effect

David Fotouhi, President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as EPA’s deputy administrator, is seeking to downplay Trump administration plans to cut the agency’s budget by 65 percent, telling the Senate environment committee that most of those cuts would come from supplemental Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funds. During a March 5 hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) raised concerns regarding Administrator Lee Zeldin’s comments that he expected to cut 65 percent of EPA...

Industry Scrambles To Preserve TSCA Resources Amidst Trump Cuts

Industry officials are expressing growing concern that Trump administration plans to slash EPA’s budget by 65 percent and remove thousands of agency employees could stymie the TSCA program’s ability to continue to regulate new and existing industrial chemicals amid ongoing struggles to meet the program’s many deadlines. “There is concern that the [Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)] workforce reductions have been made at speed without knowing what staff are doing and the importance of that work for American manufacturers,” an...

EPA Formally Seeks OIG Inquiry Into Biden-Era ‘Green Bank’ Program

EPA is formally requesting its Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigate the implementation of the Biden-era Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GHGRF), expanding Trump officials’ attack on the program that they view as facing “mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and oversight failures.” The request for a “comprehensive review” of the program is part of a March 2 letter to the OIG from acting Deputy Administrator W.C. McIntosh, and it comes as the Justice Department (DOJ) is also investigating the program at the...

White House Seeks EPA Plan To Move Staff From D.C., Reshuffle Regions

The Trump administration is directing EPA and other agencies to develop restructuring plans, which could include moving significant numbers of staff from Washington, D.C. or consolidating regional offices -- though the push is sparking fears that the directive is merely a pretext to significantly curb staffing levels. The call to consider staff relocations is included in a broader Feb. 26 memo to agencies about reorganization and reductions in force (RIF), and it is the latest sign of Trump administration efforts...

Zeldin Pledged To Shield ‘Core’ Work, Probationary Staff Prior To Cuts

Before the Trump EPA fired hundreds of probationary employees and vowed to slash its budget by 65 percent, Administrator Lee Zeldin assured staff that he would shield those working on the agency’s “core statutory mission,” as well as some probationary employees, pledges that are now being met with skepticism from agency staff, states and others. During a Feb. 13 visit to EPA Region 2, Zeldin sought to reassure EPA staff working on the agency’s “core statutory mission” that they are...

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