The $3.9 trillion FY15 budget request President Obama sent to Congress earlier this month proposes new cuts to EPA and the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds (SRFs).
The president’s plan would provide EPA with $7.9 billion next year, about $300 million below both its final FY14 appropriation, and the amount of funding Obama proposed for the agency last year.
The SRFs would bear the brunt of the cuts, with the DWSRF and CWSRF together reduced by a total of $581 million compared to their FY14 funding levels. The DWSRF would be cut to $757 million (down from $906.9 million this year), while the CWSRF would have its funding cut to $1.018 billion (compared to $1.449 billion this year).
If enacted the White House’s proposal would provide the DWSRF with its lowest annual appropriation since 1998, while representing the fifth-straight year of declining budgets for the program.
To justify the cuts, Obama’s budget documents explained the budget intends to “focus [the SRFs] on communities most in need of assistance” and aims to “target assistance to small and underserved communities that have a limited ability to repay loans.” According to the White House, even with the reduced levels of funding the SRFs would finance “approximately $6 billion annually in wastewater and drinking water infrastructure projects.”
The proposed cuts quickly met pushback from members of Congress who traditionally support strong water infrastructure investments. Senate Water and Wildlife Subcommittee Chairman Ben Cardin (D-Md.) specifically called out the water infrastructure cuts for criticism, and at month’s end was circulating a letter with Idaho Republican Sen. Mike Crapo asking Senate appropriators to ensure “continued robust investment” in the SRF programs.
Obama’s EPA budget would continue a requirement that states reserve between 20 and 30 percent of their DWSRF funding to support loan forgiveness in disadvantaged communities, though the percentage of CWSRF funds reserved for such purposes would be reduced to between 10 and 20 percent. States would not be required to set aside a specific portion of DWSRF funding for “green infrastructure” projects, while at least 20 percent of CWSRF dollars would have to be spent in this manner.