U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Appropriations: FY2020 President’s Budget Request

Updated September 6, 2019

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Appropriations:

FY2020 President’s Budget Request

Since FY2006, Congress has funded the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) in the Interior, Environment, and

Related Agencies appropriations bills. Including amendments

submitted to Congress May 13, 2019, for FY2020 the

President requested $6.22 billion for EPA. The request was

$3.04 billion (32%) less than the total $9.26 billion FY2019

enacted appropriations for EPA (after rescissions) provided

in Titles II and IV of Division E of the Consolidated

Appropriations Act, FY2019 (P.L. 116-6), and the Additional

Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Relief Act, 2019.

The FY2020 request was $3.4 million (2%) more than the

FY2019 request of $6.19 billion for EPA.

Authorization of Appropriations

The statutory authorization of appropriations for many of

the programs and activities administered by EPA has

expired, but Congress has continued to fund them through

the appropriations process. Authorization of appropriations

is a procedural matter. Congress may appropriate funding

for a program or activity for which the authorization of

appropriations has expired if no Member raises a point of

order or the rules are waived for consideration of a bill.

Congress has typically done so to continue appropriations.

History of EPA Budget Authority

The White House amendments to the initial FY2020 request

included an increase within the EPA Environmental

Programs and Management (EPM) appropriations account

for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative from $30.0 million

to $300.0 million, the same as the FY2019 enacted level.

Also included were adjustments to the proposed

“cancellation” of unobligated balances, increasing the total to

$377.0 million, $150.0 million more than initially proposed.

Trends in requested and enacted appropriations for EPA

since FY2008 are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 2 presents EPA discretionary “budget authority”

since FY1976 in nominal dollars and adjusted for inflation.

Budget authority is provided through annual appropriations

and constitutes the amount of funding available to an

agency for obligation in a fiscal year to carry out a specific

purpose authorized in law. The trend in nominal dollars

presented in Figure 2 is based on a history of agency

budget authority prepared by the White House Office of

Management and Budget (OMB). Congress has funded

EPA since the agency’s creation in 1970, but OMB

histories do not include fiscal years prior to FY1976.

Figure 1. EPA Requested and Enacted Appropriations,

FY2008-FY2020

($ nominal not adjusted for inflation)

Figure 2. EPA Discretionary Budget Authority,

FY1976-FY2020 (Request)

($ in billions nominal and adjusted for inflation)

Source: CRS using information from the Congressional Record; House,

Senate, and conference reports; and EPA’s FY2020 Congressional

Budget Justification. Enacted amounts reflect rescissions and

supplemental appropriations, including $7.22 billion included for EPA

in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-5).

Source: CRS based on the White House Office of Management and

Budget (OMB), Budget of the United States Government Fiscal Year

2020, Historical Tables, Table 5.4; CRS calculated for inflation using

OMB deflators presented in Table 10.1. FY2009 funding level reflects

the supplemental appropriations included for EPA in the American

Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-5).

Funding is appropriated to EPA to support the agency’s

primary responsibilities under several federal pollution

control statutes in coordination with states. EPA also

awards grants to assist delegated states and local

governments to support implementation and compliance

with federal requirements to control pollution.

EPA Appropriations Accounts

Funding is annually appropriated to EPA among 10

accounts established by Congress over time. In addition to

the EPM account referenced earlier, these include State and

Tribal Assistance Grants (STAG), Hazardous Substance

Superfund (“Superfund”), Science and Technology (S&T),

Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund Program,

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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Appropriations:

FY2020 President’s Budget Request

Buildings and Facilities (B&F), Office of Inspector

General, Inland Oil Spill Program, Hazardous Waste

Electronic Manifest System Fund, and Water Infrastructure

Finance and Innovation Program.

As indicated in Figure 3, the proportional distribution of

funding among these accounts has remained similar for

more than a decade with the exception of FY2009. The

STAG and EPM accounts have received the largest share of

funding, followed by the Superfund and S&T accounts. The

STAG account funds grants for water infrastructure,

brownfields site assessment and remediation, diesel

emissions reduction, targeted airsheds, and “categorical”

grants to states and tribes for implementing pollution

control. The EPM account funds additional grants and

many cross-cutting agency activities. The Superfund

account supports the environmental remediation of priority

sites designated for federal attention. The S&T account

funds research that supports agency regulatory decisions.

Figure 3. EPA Appropriations by Account, FY2008FY2020 (Request)

($ nominal not adjusted for inflation)

is described in EPA’s FY2020 Congressional Budget

Justification under its Cooperative Federalism Goal. The

FY2019 consolidated appropriations did not adopt the

President’s requested eliminations and many of the

proposed FY2019 reductions.

Compared to FY2019 enacted levels, the FY2020 request

would have reduced funding across many EPA functions

that have been the focus of congressional debate in recent

fiscal years. These include federal financial assistance to

states for clean water and drinking water infrastructure

projects through capitalization grants for state revolving

funds; categorical grants to support the implementation and

enforcement of federal environmental statutes delegated to

the states; funding for the agency’s implementation and

research support for air pollution control requirements;

EPA actions to address climate change and greenhouse gas

emissions; funding for environmental remediation; and

federal assistance for the Chesapeake Bay program and

other geographic-specific programs.

Appropriated and requested funding for these various

program areas are typically presented as line items below

the EPA appropriations account level in EPA’s budget

justifications as well as committee reports and explanatory

statements accompanying annual appropriations bills.

EPA Staff Levels

Source: Prepared by CRS using information from the Congressional

Record; House, Senate, and conference committee reports; and EPA’s

FY2020 Congressional Budget Justification. Enacted amounts include

supplemental appropriations but not rescissions.

The President’s FY2020 request proposed funding

reductions below FY2019 enacted levels for all EPA

appropriations accounts except B&F, although funding for

some program areas within the accounts would remain

constant or increase. For example, the FY2020 amended

request recommended $300.0 million for the Great Lakes

Restoration Initiative, the same as the FY2019 enacted

level, and proposed $50.0 million for a new “Healthy

Schools Grant Program” to address environmental hazards

in schools.

The President’s FY2020 request proposed 12,415 full-time

equivalents for EPA to administer federal environmental

statutes in coordination with delegated states. Based on

EPA-reported staffing levels, the request would be the

lowest since 1985. Congress does not set EPA staffing

levels in annual appropriations acts. EPA generally

determines staffing levels based on the availability of

annual appropriations enacted each fiscal year to fund the

agency. The FY2020 request proposed a total of $31.0

million for “workforce reshaping” in the EPM and S&T

accounts. The FY2019 enacted appropriations did not fund

a similar proposal. Figure 4 presents “full-time

equivalents” as reported by EPA for FY2008-FY2020.

Figure 4. EPA-Reported Full-Time Equivalent,

FY2008-FY2018 Enacted, FY2019 “annualized

continuing resolution (CR),” and FY2020 Requested

Funding and Policy Issues

The President’s proposed FY2020 funding reductions have

garnered attention from Members of Congress; states; U.S.

territories; tribes; and industry, health, and environmental

stakeholder organizations. Proposed reductions and

eliminations are distributed across EPA operational

functions and activities as well as grants for states, tribes,

and local governments. Similar to the FY2019 request, the

President has again proposed to increase the responsibilities

of states and their associated costs to carry out this

delegated authority. The proposed increased responsibility

Source: CRS using information from EPA’s FY2018 and FY2020

Budget in Brief.

Robert Esworthy, Specialist in Environmental Policy

David M. Bearden, Specialist in Environmental Policy

https://crsreports.congress.gov

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Appropriations:

FY2020 President’s Budget Request

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