Presidential Budget Includes Increase for EPA

Last Friday (4/9), President Biden released his top line budget request for fiscal year 2022 discretionary spending. This request to Congress begins the annual budget process for the federal government and Biden is expected to release a more detailed budget request later this spring. The President’s budget would increase spending by more than 10 percent in about two-thirds of the Cabinet departments, reversing the trend of budget cuts under the previous Administration. For EPA, the FY 2022 discretionary request is a 21% boost for the Agency, totaling $11.2 billion – $2 billion more than the fiscal 2021 enacted level. The EPA budget request includes:

• Nearly $2 billion to tackle climate change through greenhouse gas emissions reductions and air quality grants
• $900 million towards a new Accelerating Environmental and Economic Justice initiative
• $3.6 billion for water infrastructure, an increase of $625 million over the FY 2021 enacted level
• $882 million for the Superfund Remedial program
• $75 million to accelerate PFAS toxicity studies and research to inform PFAS regulatory developments, including regulatory activities under the Safe Drinking Water Act

It will be a long and unlikely road for this budget proposal to become reality. While Democrats control both the Senate and the House, their margins are slim (a 50-50 Senate), and it still takes 60 votes to advance appropriations bills in the Senate, rather than a simple majority.