Environmental Protection Agency: FY2006 Appropriations Highlights (CRS Report for Congress)
| Release Date |
Revised Jan. 20, 2006 |
| Report Number |
RS22064 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
David Bearden and Robert Esworthy, Resources, Science, and Industry Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
As enacted in August 2005, Title II of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for FY2006 (P.L. 109-54, H.R. 2361) provided $7.73 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), subject to an across-the-board rescission of 0.476%. The law also included $80 million for EPA in unobligated funds "rescinded" from past appropriations. Overall, P.L. 109-54 provided more funding for EPA than the Administration's FY2006 request of $7.52 billion, but less than the FY2005 appropriation of $8.03 billion. Among individual programs, funding decreased for some activities and increased for others, compared with the FY2006 request and the FY2005 appropriation.
In the debate over EPA's appropriation, considerable attention focused on the adequacy of funding for State Revolving Funds (SRFs) to assist states in issuing loans to communities for constructing and upgrading wastewater and drinking water infrastructure. Prior to the above rescission, P.L. 109-54 provided $900 million for the clean water SRF, less than the FY2005 appropriation of $1.09 billion but more than the request of $730 million. The law provided $850 million for the drinking water SRF, the same as requested, and similar to the FY2005 appropriation. Other prominent issues included the adequacy of funding for the cleanup of hazardous waste sites under the Superfund program, the cleanup of commercial and industrial sites referred to as brownfields, EPA's homeland security activities, "congressional project priorities" or earmarks, and EPA's use and consideration of intentional human dosing studies.
At the end of its first session, the 109th Congress enacted a government-wide rescission in Section 3801 of Title III of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for FY2006 (P.L. 109-148, H.R. 2863). This rescission reduced FY2006 funding for EPA and all other federal agencies by 1%, except for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and excluded "emergency" spending. P.L. 109-148 also reallocated $8 million in emergency funds to EPA for responding to leaking underground tanks in areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The Administration had recommended a $15 million reallocation for this purpose in October 2005. The law did not include the $166 million rescission for the clean water SRF that the Administration also had proposed in October.
The table below indicates congressional action on EPA's appropriation for FY2006, the Administration's request, and the FY2005 appropriation. (Also see CRS Report RL32856, Environmental Protection Agency: Appropriations for FY2006, by Robert Esworthy and David M. Bearden, Environmental Protection Agency: Appropriations for FY2006.)
