Enacted on March 15, 2025, the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (P.L. 119-4), provided funding for the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, including funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). P.L. 119-4 generally provided that appropriations for FY2025 for EPA (among other agencies) be at the same rates and under the same terms and conditions as enacted in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (P.L. 118-42), Division E, unless otherwise specified. From the beginning of FY2025 to the enactment of P.L. 119-4, EPA operated under the terms and conditions of two other continuing resolutions (CRs), generally at FY2024 regular enacted levels.
P.L. 119-4 provided $9.14 billion in regular appropriations for EPA. This amount is $23.72 million (0.26%) less than the FY2024 regular enacted appropriations for EPA of $9.16 billion (provided in P.L. 118-42) in nominal dollars, including rescissions. As discussed below, P.L. 119-4 included changes in the levels of three of EPA's appropriations accounts compared to FY2024. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA; P.L. 117-58), enacted on November 15, 2021, provided an additional $12.01 billion for EPA in advance appropriations for FY2025 (IIJA, Division J, Title VI). Together, P.L. 119-4 and P.L. 117-58 provided a total of $21.14 billion for EPA for FY2025. This amount is $376.28 million (1.81%) more than the $20.77 billion in total enacted appropriations for EPA for FY2024 in nominal dollars, including rescissions. Figure 1 shows trends in requested and enacted regular annual appropriations for EPA from FY2016 through FY2025. The figure does not include IIJA supplemental appropriations for FY2022 through FY2025 or $41.46 billion in one-time FY2022 mandatory appropriations provided to EPA in P.L. 117-169, the measure known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
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Figure 1. EPA Requested and Enacted Regular Appropriations, FY2016-FY2025 |
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Source: CRS using information from the Congressional Record; House, Senate, and conference reports; and EPA's Congressional Budget Justifications from FY2016 through FY2026. Notes: Enacted amounts reflect rescissions but do not include supplemental appropriations provided in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for FY2022-FY2025 and the Inflation Reduction Act for FY2022. FY2025 amounts are amounts provided in the full-year continuing resolution (CR), P.L. 119-4. |
In recent years, Congress has funded EPA through a combination of regular annual appropriations, supplemental appropriations in the IIJA and the IRA, and other supplemental appropriations. Figure 2 shows the distribution of total enacted EPA appropriations since FY2022 among these acts. Some IRA and IIJA appropriations allow EPA to obligate funds across multiple fiscal years; therefore, actual agency expenditures may differ from total appropriations amounts in a specific fiscal year.
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Source: CRS using information from the Congressional Record and House, Senate, and conference reports. Notes: IIJA = Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; IRA = Inflation Reduction Act. P.L. 117-328 provided $1.67 billion in supplemental appropriations for EPA for FY2023. FY2025 amounts are amounts provided in the full-year CR, P.L. 119-4. |
EPA Appropriations Accounts
Funding for discretionary spending is annually appropriated to EPA among 10 statutory accounts: State and Tribal Assistance Grants (STAG), Environmental Programs and Management (EPM), Hazardous Substance Superfund ("Superfund"), Science and Technology (S&T), Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund Program, Buildings and Facilities, Office of Inspector General, Inland Oil Spill Program, Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest System Fund, and Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Program. P.L. 119-4 generally provides continuing appropriations for EPA at FY2024 levels, except for three accounts, discussed below.
As Figure 3 shows, the proportional distribution of funding among the 10 EPA accounts generally remained similar for several fiscal years prior to the enactment of IIJA supplemental appropriations in FY2022 and has generally remained similar to FY2022 levels in the three subsequent fiscal years. Historically, 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 delegated states and tribes for implementing pollution control programs. The EPM account funds additional grants and cross-cutting agency activities. The Superfund account supports the environmental remediation of priority sites on nonfederal lands designated for federal attention in coordination with the states in which the sites are located. The S&T account funds research that supports agency regulatory decisions.
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Figure 3. EPA Enacted Regular Annual and IIJA Appropriations by Account, FY2016-FY2025 |
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Source: CRS using information from the Congressional Record; House, Senate, and conference committee reports. Notes: EPM = Environmental Programs and Management; IIJA = Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; S&T = Science and Technology; STAG = State and Tribal Assistance Grants. Enacted amounts reflect rescissions and supplemental appropriations but do not include one-time mandatory IRA appropriations for FY2022. FY2025 amounts are amounts provided in the CR, P.L. 119-4. |
FY2025 appropriations in P.L. 119-4, while generally continuing EPA funding at FY2024 levels, included funding decreases in 2 of the 10 EPA appropriations accounts (S&T and STAG) and an increase in 1 account (EPM) compared with FY2024 regular enacted appropriations.
Selected Differences from FY2024 Funding Levels
P.L. 119-4 specified certain exceptions to continuing FY2024 funding levels for three EPA appropriations accounts. Section 1802 specified $3.20 billion for EPM, a $17.00 million (0.53%) increase compared to FY2024 regular enacted appropriations. According to the House Appropriations Committee section-by-section summary, this spending adjustment is intended to "modernize the Environmental Protection Agency's IT system to more efficiently complete chemical reviews, as requested by the Administration." P.L. 119-4 specified decreases in two appropriations accounts compared to FY2024 regular enacted appropriations. For the S&T account, Section 1801(7) specified funding of $756.07 million, a $2.03 million (0.27%) decrease compared to FY2024 regular enacted appropriations of $758.10 million. Specifically, P.L. 119-4 directed that no funding be provided for the congressionally directed spending/community project funding (CDS/CPF) within the S&T Research: National Priorities Program Area. For the STAG account, P.L. 119-4 specified $4.38 billion, a $38.69 million (0.88%) decrease compared to FY2024 regular enacted appropriations of $4.42 billion. Including IIJA advanced appropriations for FY2025 of $11.62 billion, total STAG appropriations for FY2025 were $16.00 billion, a $361.31 million (2.31%) increase compared to FY2024 total STAG appropriations.
P.L. 119-4 did not specify other EPA funding amounts below the account level. Instead, Division A, Section 1113, generally directed departments and certain agencies to submit spending, expenditure, or operating plans to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees at the program, project, or activity level or any greater level of detail required for FY2024.
Policy Issues
Congress could consider how changes in FY2025 EPA appropriations under the CR, compared to FY2024 regular enacted appropriations, affect the agency's priorities and capacity to meet statutory responsibilities. Some policymakers may observe that flat funding for regular appropriations for most EPA accounts and program areas may lessen the agency's capacity to fulfill its regulatory, programmatic, or grantmaking responsibilities, as costs and programmatic needs may increase from year to year. Other policymakers may prefer similar levels of EPA funding for FY2025 as for FY2024. These policymakers may observe that, in addition to regular annual appropriations, EPA also received $12.01 billion in IIJA advance appropriations for FY2025.
Policymakers could consider the policy implications of changes to funding distribution in P.L. 119-4 for FY2025. For example, Congress made specific changes to the distribution of funding for water infrastructure financing compared to past fiscal years. P.L. 119-4, Section 1801(8), does not include the water infrastructure CDS/CPF items, sometimes called "earmarks," that were provided in FY2024 from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and the Drinking Water SRF (DWSRF) appropriations within the STAG account. Therefore, in FY2025, the total amount of FY2025 CWSRF and DWSRF regular appropriations is available for allotment to state capitalization grants. This means that decisions about which local water infrastructure projects receive funding will be made by state program officials, rather than by Members of Congress through the CDS/CPF process (see CRS In Focus IF12950, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Water Infrastructure Programs and FY2025 Appropriations. P.L. 119-4 also allocated a specific amount to EPA to be used for toxic chemical review activities, a priority for some policymakers and industry and other stakeholders who have expressed concerns over the length of the chemical review process. Other policymakers may not support additional spending in this area compared to FY2024 amounts.