Budget

As they resume long-stalled contract talks with agency officials, EPA’s largest employee union is urging Administrator Andrew Wheeler to back its newly released “workers’ bill of rights,” as part of any new contract, a document that calls for “scientific integrity in EPA work,” the ability to research and address climate change and full funding.

EPA’s research chief is looking to the agency’s pending appropriations for fiscal year 2020 to bolster Administrator Andrew Wheeler’s “moonshot” directive to eliminate EPA’s use of animal testing by 2035 and develop a host of new alternate chemical test methods (NAM) in the face of doubts that the agency is providing sufficient funds to the effort.

Environmentalists have unveiled new findings showing steep staff and funding cuts to environmental agencies in most states over the past decade, arguing this undermines Trump EPA claims that the agency’s own resource limits are not degrading environmental protection but rather shifting responsibility to the states.

EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) says it far exceeded its planned “return on investment” for fiscal year 2019, finding in its year-end report to Congress that the office’s investigations, audits and reviews created $314 million in benefits on a $50.3 million budget, and dozens of unimplemented recommendations could produce another $68 million.