Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): Appropriations for FY2011

Robert Esworthy
Specialist in Environmental Policy

David M. Bearden
Specialist in Environmental Policy

Claudia Copeland
Specialist in Resources and Environmental Policy

Jane A. Leggett
Specialist in Energy and Environmental Policy

James E. McCarthy
Specialist in Environmental Policy

Mary Tiemann
Specialist in Environmental Policy

Enacted April 15, 2011, the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 (P.L. 112-10, H.R. 1473), provided funding for the remainder of FY2011 for those agencies typically funded under 12 regular appropriations bills. Including applicable rescissions, Title VII of Division B under P.L. 112-10 provided $8.68 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA ) for FY2011. The final EPA FY2011 appropriations were $1.61 billion (16%) less than the FY2010 appropriation of $10.29 billion, and $1.34 billion (13%) less than the $10.02 billion included in the President’s FY2011 budget request.

The overall decrease for EPA for FY2011, including rescissions, compared to the FY2010 enacted appropriations and FY2011 President’s request was reflected in reductions across the eight EPA regular appropriations accounts. Most of the overall FY2011 decrease resulted from a reduction in EPA’s State and Tribal Assistance Grants (STAG) account for grants to aid states to capitalize their Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (SRFs). The FY2011 combined total for the Clean Water and the Drinking Water SRFs was $2.49 billion, compared to $3.49 billion for FY2010 and the President’s FY2011 budget request of $3.29 billion.

None of the 12 regular appropriations bills for FY2011, including the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies bill that funds EPA, were enacted before the start of the fiscal year on October 1, 2010. Initially, a series of temporary continuing resolutions (CRs) was enacted that sequentially extended funding from October 1, 2010, through April 15, 2011 (the last of the FY2011 interim CRs was P.L. 112-8, enacted April 9, 2011). Also during the 112th Congress, Title VII of Division B in H.R. 1, a full-year continuing resolution passed by the House on February 19, 2011, included specified funding levels for certain EPA accounts below the FY2011 requested and FY2010 enacted levels. House-passed H.R. 1 contained more than 20 provisions that would have restricted and prohibited the use of appropriated funds to implement various regulatory activities under EPA’s jurisdiction. On March 9, 2011, the Senate did not pass the House version of H.R. 1 and did not agree to a subsequent Senate substitute amendment (S.Amdt. 149) containing different funding levels and omitting the EPA provisions included in the House-passed H.R. 1.

In addition to the Clean Water and the Drinking Water SRFs, other prominent issues that received attention within the context of the EPA FY2011 appropriations debate included the level of funding for greenhouse gas emission regulations, climate change research and related activities, cleanup of hazardous waste sites under the Superfund program, cleanup of less hazardous sites referred to as brownfields, and grants to assist states in implementing certain air pollution control requirements. Funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative established in the FY2010 appropriations, and funding for the protection and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay and other geographic-specific water programs, also received attention.


Date of Report: June 30, 2011
Number of Pages: 35
Order Number: R41149
Price: $29.95

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