Following discussions with the Inspector General, EPA has committed to updating guidance on agency records management and resuming sending reports to Congress on the coastal waters grant program.
Senate environment committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY) is pledging to advance legislation to limit states' authority under Clean Water Act (CWA) section 401 to review federally permitted projects to determine their impacts on state water quality, despite strong opposition from Democrats and widespread concern from states.
A top Senate Democrat is criticizing Trump administration proposals to cut funding for EPA's Office of Inspector General (IG), a move that may help preserve separate congressional spending plans that propose to increase the office's funds in fiscal year 2019 just as officials battle to address increased work loads due in part to inquiries into former Administrator Scott Pruitt.
Democratic lawmakers are highlighting risks to low-income and minority communities in opposing EPA's plan to largely scrap an Obama-era update to the agency's facility safety rule.
EPA's environmental justice advisors are urging the agency in a draft report to build a broad coalition to press Congress to increase funding for affordable, safe and reliable drinking water, arguing that without the funds, the agency will not be able to advance their advice to address what they call “a defining problem of the 21st century.”
Opponents of the pesticide chlorpyrifos concerned about its human health harms are eyeing preemptive steps to block use of the substance including calling on California to suspend it and rallying support for legislation to impose a national ban, as they expect EPA to appeal a recent appellate ruling that requires it to prohibit the substance.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has set a schedule that would lead to a floor vote on the nominee before the Supreme Court begins its next term in October, though Democrats and environmentalists are pushing back.
Governors, attorneys general, state regulators and a host of other state groups are urging Congress to drop plans to amend the Clean Water Act (CWA) section 401 certification process, imperiling pending Republican legislation that seeks to limit states' ability to use the authority to block natural gas pipelines and other federally approved infrastructure projects.
GAO is backing Democrats' recent calls to include data sharing provisions in EPA's now-stalled Obama-era facility safety rule in the Department of Homeland Secrurity's chemical facility safety program.
Wastewater utilities are urging EPA to focus its work on perfluorinated chemicals on research to better understand the fate, transport and toxicity of the chemicals and then to use “heightened source control efforts and certain, specifically tailored regulatory standards,” to remove the constituents from the environment.
