White House Submits Fiscal Year 2023 Budget to Congress

On March 28, the Biden-Harris Administration submitted the President’s Budget for the 2023 fiscal year. The proposed budget allocates $11.881 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency. The budget seeks to support the Biden Administration’s Justice40 goal of ensuring at least 40 percent of the benefits of federal investments by proposing to invest more than $1.45 billion across EPA’s programs to “help create good-paying jobs, clean up pollution, advance racial equity, and secure environmental justice for all communities.” According to EPA’s press release, the Agency has proposed a new national environmental justice program office to coordinate and maximize the benefits of the Agency’s programs and activities for underserved communities.

EPA’s budget includes $4 billion to upgrade the nation’s drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, with a focus on underserved communities. This funding will provide $160 million in grants to reduce lead in drinking water and $25 million for a new water sector cybersecurity grant program. The budget proposes to maintain the funding for the State Revolving Funds, which will coincide with the $23.4 billion provided for the traditional SRF programs over five years in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Additionally, approximately $126 million will go towards the Agency’s work to increase its understanding of human health and ecological effects of PFAS, restrict uses to prevent PFAS from entering the air, land, and water, and remediate PFAS that have already been released into the environment.

Finally, the proposed budget includes more than 1,900 new Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) to help rebuild the Agency’s staff capacity. Of these, 449 FTE will be allocated to support the Agency’s work under the Toxic Substances Control Act, particularly to meet the statutory timelines for chemical risk evaluations and protective regulations under the bipartisan Lautenberg Act.