WASHINGTON – Today, March 11, 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration released the President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2025. Following historic progress made since the President took office—with nearly 15 million jobs created and inflation down two-thirds—the Budget protects and builds on this progress by lowering costs for working families, protecting and strengthening Social Security and Medicare, investing in America and the American people, and reducing the deficit by cracking down on fraud, cutting wasteful spending, and making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share.
“President Biden’s Investing in America agenda and the FY 2025 Budget for EPA deliver bold environmental actions and economic benefits for communities across the county,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “The Budget announced today will advance the agency’s ongoing efforts to address our most critical environmental challenges, from combating climate change, to ensuring clean air, safe water, and healthy lands, to protecting communities from harmful chemicals. EPA’s work will benefit all Americans and we have made it a priority to ensure that a commitment to environmental justice is central to all of the agency’s efforts as we continue our work to help disadvantaged and overburdened areas become healthier, more resilient, communities.”
The Budget makes critical, targeted investments in the American people that will promote greater prosperity for decades to come. At EPA, the Budget will:
- Advance Environmental Justice. The Budget bolsters the agency’s efforts to achieve environmental justice in communities across the Nation by investing nearly $1.5 billion in environmental justice-related programs. This investment supports the implementation of the President’s Justice40 commitment, which ensures at least 40 percent of the benefits of federal investments in climate and clean energy as well as infrastructure work reach disadvantaged communities, including rural and Tribal communities. These investments continue to support efforts to promote cleaner air and cleaner water, focusing on frontline communities.
- Urgently Tackle Climate Change. The Budget prioritizes combatting climate change with the urgency that science demands. The Budget includes $2.9 billion in climate-related programs to support work reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, building resilience in the face of climate impacts including engaging with the global community, expanding upon the GHG Reporting Program and Sinks Inventory, and implementing provisions in the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act to continue phasing out the production and import of hydrofluorocarbons.
- Invest in Clean Air. The FY 2025 Budget provides a total of $1.5 billion for the Office of Air and Radiation, an increase of $690 million since the beginning of the Administration, to continue the development of national programs, policies, and regulations that control indoor and outdoor air pollution and radiation exposure. This funding includes $423 million to assist EPA’s Tribal, state, and local partners in implementing their air quality management programs, an increase of $158 million from the current levels. Also included is $100 million for the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act Program, which funds grants and rebates to reduce harmful emissions from diesel engines, and $70 million for the Targeted Airshed Grants, which help reduce air pollution in the most polluted nonattainment areas. The Budget provides $186 million for the Federal Vehicle and Fuels Standards Certification Program, which develops analytical methods, regulations, and analysis to reduce GHG emissions from mobile sources.
- Support the President’s Goal of Replacing All Lead Pipes. The Budget includes a total of $101 million for two EPA grant programs dedicated to remediating lead contamination in drinking water—the Reducing Lead in Drinking Water grant program and the Voluntary School and Child Care Lead Testing and Reduction Grant Program—an increase of $53 million over 2021 levels. This investment, along with other programs at EPA that can be used for lead projects, builds on the historic $15 billion in direct funding for lead pipe replacement through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and underscores the President’s commitment to ensuring access to safe drinking water and creating good-paying jobs in the process.
- Invest in Critical Water Infrastructure. The Budget provides a total of $2.4 billion for the State Revolving Funds (SRFs) for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, an increase of more than $1 billion over the current levels. The SRFs provide states with resources to fund high priority projects that improve human health and environmental conditions. These funds, and other water infrastructure programs within EPA, like the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) credit program and the two $25 million grants programs focused on infrastructure resilience and sustainability, complement funding provided for water infrastructure in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Budget also includes $30 million for a new program that addresses gaps in resources to help improve the Federal response to water-related emergencies, such as the recent arsenic contamination of a public well in Coachella Valley, CA, and the drinking water access crisis in Jackson, MS.
- Safeguard Against Dangerous Chemicals and Protecting Public Health and the Environment. EPA has a responsibility under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to ensure the safety of chemicals in or entering commerce and addressing any unreasonable risks to human health or the environment. The Budget invests nearly $132 million, an increase of $49 million above current levels to continue building core capacity and modernizing information technology and data software for the TSCA Program. The Budget also provides $208 million for Brownfields to support efforts to revitalize sites by awarding grants and providing technical assistance to Tribes, states, local communities, and other stakeholders to plan, inventory, assess, safely clean up, and reuse brownfields sites. Additionally, the Budget proposes approximately $170 million for EPA to continue addressing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) through actions highlighted in the agency’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap.
- Continue to Build Back Capacity to Carry Out EPA’s Core Mission. The Budget adds more than 2,000 Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) relative to the 2023 Operating Budget, for a total of more than 17,000 FTEs. This continues to build back capacity for oversight of delegated programs, enforcement and compliance, land clean-up, grant deployment, public communication and engagement, and scientific research in support of all offices at EPA. These staffing investments will enable EPA to better serve the American people and protect public health and the environment.
- Ensure Compliance with and Enforcement of the Nation’s Environmental Laws. The Budget provides $260 million for civil enforcement efforts, which includes funding to prevent the illegal importation and use of hydrofluorocarbons in the United States. The Budget also includes $172 million for compliance monitoring efforts, including funds to conduct inspections in underserved and overburdened communities and rebuilding the inspector corps, and $77 million for criminal enforcement efforts. The agency will implement the National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives to target these investments at the most serious environmental violations.
- Support State and Tribal Partners. The Budget continues to request additional resources to directly support EPA’s Tribal, state, and local partners with an investment of $1.5 billion in categorical grants, an increase of $304 million. This includes a new $25 million program to develop and fund Direct Implementation Tribal Cooperative Agreements to advance equitable implementation of EPA authorities and directives in Indian Country, which will include a focus on increasing resilience to climate change impacts.
The Budget builds on the President’s record while achieving meaningful deficit reduction through measures that cut wasteful spending and ask the wealthy to pay their fair share.
Find more information on the President’s FY 2025 Budget and EPA’s Congressional Justification and Budget in Brief.
from EPA News Releases https://ift.tt/iVNbEUp