Environmental Protection Agency: Appropriations for FY2006 (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Revised Jan. 20, 2006 |
| Report Number |
RL32856 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Robert Esworthy and David Bearden, Resources, Science, and Industry Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
| Older Revisions |
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Summary:
Early in the first session, the 109th Congress eliminated the Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development (VA-HUD), and Independent Agencies appropriations subcommittee and moved funding jurisdiction for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the Interior subcommittee. 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 EPA, subject to an across-the-board rescission of 0.476%. The appropriation included an additional $80 million in unobligated funds "rescinded" from past appropriations.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.
At the end of the first session, the 109th Congress enacted a government-wide rescission in 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 excluding "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 Hurricane Katrina. The Administration had recommended $15 million for this purpose in October 2005, as part of a $17.1 billion reallocation of emergency funds. The law did not include the $166 million rescission for EPA's clean water State Revolving Fund (SRF) that the Administration also had proposed in October, as part of a $2.3 billion rescission affecting numerous federal agencies.
In the debate over the Interior bill, considerable attention focused on the adequacy of federal assistance to states to support the clean water and drinking water SRFs. States use these funds to issue loans to communities for constructing and upgrading wastewater and drinking water infrastructure to meet federal requirements. Prior to the two rescissions noted above, P.L. 109-54 provided $900 million for the clean water SRF, an increase above the Administration's request of $730 million, but a decrease below the FY2005 appropriation of $1.09 billion. P.L. 109-54 also provided $850 million for the drinking water SRF, which was the same as the Administration had requested and similar to the FY2005 appropriation, prior to the two above rescissions.
Other prominent issues in the debate over FY2006 appropriations for EPA 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 for determining potential human health risks from exposure to pesticides. There also were varying levels of interest in numerous other activities funded within EPA's accounts. This report reflects final congressional action on FY2006 appropriations for EPA and will not be updated.
