From The National Law Review, March 23:
Executive branch priorities are clearly set out in agency budget requests. While the amount budgeted generally changes when Congress has its say, the original request provides unique insight into how agencies perceive what can and should happen in the next fiscal year.
The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) FY2024 Budget in Brief summarizes EPA’s FY2024 budget request. The Budget in Brief notes that it builds upon EPA’s FY2022 – 2026 Strategic Plan, which we discussed here. As we will outline in greater detail below, the Budget in Brief illustrates EPA’s continued focus on issues including climate, environmental justice, and infrastructure.
Budget Request Summary
EPA requests $12.083 billion in funding for FY2024, a 19% increase from enacted 2023 funding. It envisions EPA having 17,077 full-time equivalent personnel, an increase of 1,961 employees from the present. Priorities include:
“Addressing the climate crisis by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions” and “building resilience in the face of climate impacts”
“Investing . . . in support of environmental justice”
“Ensuring compliance with . . . civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination in programs or activities” that receive financial assistance from EPA
Providing “reliable and safe drinking water.”
We break out funding requests specific to each of these topics below....
....MUCH MORE
Here's the March 9, 2023 Statement by [EPA] Administrator Regan on the President’s FY 2024 Budget
President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget requests $12.083 billion, supporting the EPA’s essential work to protect human health and the environment.
....MUCH MOREWASHINGTON – Today, the Biden-Harris Administration released the President’s Budget for fiscal year 2024 to the Congress. The Budget requests over $12 billion in discretionary budget authority for the EPA in 2024, a $1.9 billion or 19-percent increase from the fiscal year 2023 enacted level. EPA will release the full Congressional Justification and Budget in Brief materials soon.
The President’s Budget makes historic investments to support the Agency’s ongoing work to tackle the climate crisis, advance environmental justice, protect air quality across the nation, invest in critical water infrastructure and increase support for our state and Tribal partners in their efforts to implement environmental laws, and continue to rebuild core functions at the Agency.
“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.”
Highlights of the President’s FY 2024 Budget include:
- Tackling the Climate Crisis with Urgency. The EPA’s Budget prioritizes combatting climate change with the urgency that science demands. The Budget includes $5 billion, a $757 million increase over the 2023 enacted level, to support work reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, building resilience in the face of climate impacts, and engaging with the global community to respond to this shared challenge, while also providing resources to spur economic progress and create good-paying jobs. The Budget proposes a $64.4 million increase over the 2023 enacted budget to implement the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act to continue phasing out potent GHGs known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). It also invests $7 million in wildfire smoke preparedness.
- Advancing Environmental Justice. The Budget bolsters the Agency’s efforts to achieve environmental justice in communities across the Nation by investing nearly $1.8 billion across numerous programs in support of environmental justice efforts. 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 such as Superfund, Brownfields, and SRFs, reach disadvantaged communities, including rural and Tribal communities. Additionally, this Budget will support activities creating good-paying jobs, cleaning up pollution, advancing equity, and securing environmental justice for communities that often bear the brunt of toxic pollution and impacts of climate change. The Budget also includes $91 million for technical assistance to support capacity building for communities to advance equity and justice.....
