2026 EPA Budget Avoids Drastic Cuts

The U.S. House and Senate have passed a bipartisan $8.8 billion budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other environmental agencies that largely avoids drastic cuts proposed by the Trump Administration.  

Still, EPA’s fiscal year 2026 budget will be at an all-time low. The budget also includes cuts that would eliminate the Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations and defund the Office of Energy Justice and Equity. 

At the same time, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is rolling out his promised “biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history,” aimed at eliminating 31 environmental and public health protections. For example, last week, the EPA announced it would stop considering the impact on human health when reviewing power plant pollution emissions. The EPA will stop calculating how much money is saved in health care costs avoided and deaths prevented from air pollution rules that curb two deadly pollutants—fine particulate matter and ozone, NBC News reported.

The compromise spending package blocks several anti-environmental riders, though, including one that would have led to the sale of public lands, and sets legally binding spending requirements to help ensure the White House can’t withhold or misuse funds.   

The set of bills provides funding at near previous levels for agencies such as the Health and Human Services (HHS), National Park Service (NPS), National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Department of Energy (DOE), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), National Science Foundation (NSF), and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) that play an important role delivering science, environmental, and energy programs.