House Appropriators Propose Slashing EPA Budget

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The House Appropriations Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Subcommittee’s proposal would dangerously cut the EPA’s budget by 39%, which would fund EPA at its lowest level since 1991. The proposal includes unprecedented cuts to numerous programs protecting public health.

“The extreme Republican appropriations bill is threatening Americans’ health and well-being by proposing unprecedented cuts to critical clean energy programs,” said Elizabeth Gore, Environmental Defense Fund’s senior vice president for political affairs. “These cuts to popular public health and clean energy programs undermine important protections."

Republicans’ budget proposal unilaterally cuts all funding for environmental justice activities and includes at least 17 poison pill policy riders that fuel the climate crisis, block clean energy measures and undermine clean water.

The extreme Republican appropriations bill proposes cutting significantly from President Biden’s historic clean energy plan investments that are reducing harmful pollution, improving our health, making us more energy secure, reducing energy bills, creating jobs and healing the planet. The bill aims to cut $7.8 billion from the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund which creates jobs and supports historic investments for low-income and disadvantaged communities, and another $1.4 billion intended to address environmental health impacts in underserved and overburdened communities.