Budget

The ongoing, indefinite government shutdown threatens to stall EPA's deregulatory agenda by sidelining staff who were working on high-profile rollbacks of Obama-era regulations and preparing to defend those efforts in court, sources say, while worsening morale and deterring new hires by raising questions over job security at the agency.

EPA is bracing for a shutdown of all operations except essential services following the imminent end to reserve funding that it has been using to stay open amid a partial government shutdown, and is preparing an “orderly” procedure to halting its work given the ongoing impasse over legislation to fund shuttered agencies.

EPA has sufficient funds to weather a short government shutdown with relatively minimal disruption to its operations, according to a new contingency plan and assurances from acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler sent to agency staff.

Congress is poised to vote in the coming days on a stopgap bill that will extend level funding for EPA and six other federal agencies into February, a move that will avoid a partial government shutdown while creating an early test for the new Democratic Congress to negotiate a longer-term deal with Senate Republicans and the White House.