Funding : Historic investment for EPA in Biden budget

When US president Joe Biden presented a 6.9 trillion US-Dollar budget proposal, one thing stuck out: the record 12 billion Dollars for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This means a 19% increase over its current enacted level and a record-high amount.

The EPA’s current enacted budget is $10.1 billion, its highest level since 2010. But that figure is also 14.7% lower than what Biden had requested. The proposed budget will likely be trimmed during congressional negotiations.

Biden's historic investments to support EPA's work comes after the Supreme Court ruled that Congress, not the EPA, has the authority to create a
system of cap-and-trade regulations to limit emissions from power plants back in July 2022. The ruling was a major setback for the Biden administration's agenda to combat climate change.

These are the key EPA-related areas:

The Budget bolsters the efforts to deliver environmental justice by investing nearly 1.8 billion US Dollars at EPA across numerous programs, including Biden’s Justice40, that will support securing environmental justice for communities that bear the brunt of toxic pollution and climate change. The Budget also provides EPA 219 million US Dollars to help remediate lead contamination in water, an increase of 163 million US Dollars over the 2023 enacted level.

By investing in reducing global warming pollution the fiscal budget aims to achieve Biden’s target to cut greenhouse gas emissions 50-52 percent by 2030. These investments include an additional 64.4 million US Dollars at EPA to implement the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act and continue phasing out potent greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The Budget supports 1.2 billion US Dollars in DOE industrial decarbonization activities.

The Administration continues to prioritize efforts to deliver environmental justice in communities across the United States, including meeting the President’s Justice40 Initiative to ensure that 40 percent of the overall benefits of Federal investments in climate and clean energy reach disadvantaged communities, including rural and Tribal communities. The Budget bolsters these efforts by investing nearly 1.8 billion US Dollars at EPA across numerous programs that will support securing environmental justice for communities that bear the brunt of toxic pollution and climate change. The Budget also provides EPA 219 million US Dollars to help remediate lead contamination in water, an increase of $163 million over the 2023 enacted level.

The draft budget also urges the EPA to ramp up staffing from 2,400 in 2022 to about 17,000 and double down on Superfund cleanups.

"EPA is at the center of President Biden’s ambitious environmental agenda and the FY 2024 Budget will ensure the Agency delivers bold environmental actions and economic benefits for all. Coupled with the President’s historic investments in America through significant legislative accomplishments, the Budget will advance EPA’s mission across the board, boosting everything from our efforts to combat climate change, to delivering clean air, safe water, and healthy lands, to protecting communities from harmful chemicals, and to the continued restoration of capacity necessary to effectively implement these programs,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “Importantly, the Budget also supports our work to center environmental justice across all of the Agency’s programs, ensuring that no family, especially those living in overburdened and underserved areas, has to worry about the air they breathe, the water they drink, or the environmental safety of their communities.”