FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 3, 2026
CONTACT:
Aaron Bharucha, Public Relations Associate
(509) 429-1699 and epn-press@environmentalprotectionnetwork.org
Clean Air and Safe Water at Risk Under Trump FY27 Budget Proposal
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Environmental Protection Network issued the following statement today in response to the President’s proposed FY27 budget for the Environmental Protection Agency. The President has proposed cutting EPA’s budget by half – similar to the proposal he made last year that was soundly rejected by Congress on a bipartisan basis. The renewed attempt is a part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to put their political agenda ahead of protecting Americans’ air, water, food, and health.
“This EPA budget proposal leaves families sicker, not safer,” said Michelle Roos, Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Network.
“This is part of the Trump administration’s dangerous and far-reaching plan to let polluters decide which toxic chemicals to dump in our drinking water, which harmful pollution to pump into the air we breathe, and which pesticides are put on the food we eat.”
“Because some politicians in Washington don’t support EPA’s mission of protecting human health, many communities across the country have lost the EPA pollution inspectors and experts that have protected families from harm. EPA is stretched beyond its limits and no longer has the workforce needed to adequately protect all communities from toxic chemicals and pollution.”
Despite having to deal with an ever-increasing array of environmental threats, EPA today has 4,000 fewer employees than before Trump took office, a 25% reduction putting EPA staffing levels at 2,000 fewer than the agency had under President Ronald Reagan. Last year, the Trump administration drove thousands of inspectors, scientists, and health experts out of EPA national and regional offices throughout the country, despite the fact that Congress rejected these budget and staffing cuts in the bipartisan FY 2026 EPA appropriations bill, which President Trump signed.
EPA’s budget accounts for less than one-half of a penny of every dollar of federal spending. About 40 percent of the agency’s funding goes to states, local governments, Tribal nations and other public service entities across the nation for safe drinking water and other projects that protect the water we drink and the air we breathe.
In a letter to Congress last year, the Environmental Protection Network urged lawmakers to provide at least $12 billion for the agency, highlighting strong bipartisan support for EPA funding and the need to sustain critical programs, scientific research, and enforcement capacity.
Earlier this Month, an EPA Inspector General (OIG) audit found EPA lacks a plan to address its grants workforce needs and the challenges associated with the volume of grants awarded through annual and supplemental appropriations. The OIG concluded that without workforce planning for EPA’s grants workforce, the agency risks mismanaging annual and supplemental appropriations and failing to meet grants management requirements—leaving its programs vulnerable to fraud, waste, and abuse and undermining its mission.
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ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION NETWORK
The Environmental Protection Network is a nonpartisan organization comprising more than 750 former EPA scientists, toxicologists, chemists, biologists, engineers, and policy analysts — many of whom spent decades as career experts inside the agency. They assessed cancer and developmental risks, studied links between pollution and fertility and chronic disease, investigated contaminated communities, and brought enforcement actions to hold corporate polluters accountable. EPN was founded in 2017 to serve as an independent voice promoting science-based policies that protect Americans’ health.