Congress needs to support EPA’s environmental protection infrastructure

Congress got it right with a bipartisan infrastructure law that provides robust funding for Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to pay for hazardous waste cleanups and distribute to states for critical clean water and wastewater projects. But it missed the boat with an omnibus EPA appropriation that neglects the most important environmental infrastructure, EPA’s core capacity to protect our nation’s health and environment. That infrastructure has been depleted by years of neglect and slow starvation, culminating last year with EPA funding that was scarcely half in real dollars what the agency received 40 years ago, and its smallest staff since 1987.

The Biden administration’s EPA 2022 budget request aimed to reverse the decline in EPA resources with a down payment toward rebuilding the agency and restoring its environmental protection infrastructure, while also addressing climate change and advancing environmental justice. But despite its generous support for physical infrastructure in the bipartisan infrastructure law, when it came to funding EPA’s operations, Congress continued its long-standing pattern — neglecting EPA’s infrastructure, the staff and programs that enable the agency  to protect the environment. 

This year’s EPA appropriation torpedoes the agency’s rebuilding plans by rejecting almost $1.7 billion in requests for new funding. It includes a token “increase” in support for EPA programs too small even to keep pace with inflation. EPA cannot remain a poor relation among federal agencies and still provide the environmental and health protections the nation requires and demands.

The most direct blow to the agency’s rebuilding plans is the omnibus law’s rejection of a request for $110 million to hire 1,000 new staff to enhance environmental protection and offset the significant declines of the Trump administration years. A second blow is the rejection of all but $10 million of the increases EPA included in its request to restore the role of science in the agency with $100 million in new support for science and research. It even rejects a modest $10 million increase to address the ubiquitous and noxious pollutants collectively identified as  “PFAS,” an emerging problem that receives $2 billion a year through the bipartisan infrastructure law, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. 

The gravest harm is to air quality protection: the omnibus denies $300 million for climate research ($60 million); state, local and tribal air quality management ($100 million), as well as EPA clean air programs ($140 million).  That makes roadkill of plans to upgrade an appallingly inadequate air quality monitoring system that doesn’t adequately measure nationwide air pollution and has a long track record of missing serious pollution problems.

The omnibus rejects another $175 million for EPA core programs to address toxics and protect water quality, along with operations, activities and facilities, as well as enforcement and compliance monitoring. The lack of monitoring and enforcement support is particularly harmful, because new data show that serious environmental violations are…