Recently the administration released its budget proposal for fiscal year (FY) 2017. For the NTEU-represented Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the proposed funding level is $8.267 billion. This is an increase of $128 million over FY 2016.
Last year, Congress froze EPA’s budget at FY 2015 funding levels. This year’s proposed increase, while modest, represents needed relief from increasing tight budgets that could lead to RIFs and furloughs as well as harming the EPA’s mission at a critical time in protecting our environment. Even with this new funding, EPA will be at its lowest staffing level since 1989 and 3,000 FTEs below the last year of the Clinton Administration.
Past experience has shown NTEU that this proposed appropriation will be stridently attacked by members of Congress opposed to environmental care. NTEU continues making the case for adequate funding.