By CEED, Apr 17, 2026
President Trump released his FY27 budget plan on April 3rd. While the budget plan is not law, it sets the stage for debate in Congress over appropriation bills that determine how much funding each department, federal agency, or program covering different sectors (defense, education, environmental protection) receives and under what conditions. The budget plan tells us what this Administration prioritizes and how this Administration wants to spend money.
The FY 27 budget plan guts investments in community health and well-being while bankrolling polluters. The EPA budget cuts would make communities, children, and families sicker, while allowing corporate polluters to emit toxic chemicals and pollution tied to cancer, heart disease, asthma, developmental harms, and premature death into our air, water, and food. The proposed cuts include eliminating programs such as the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) grants, which support pollution reduction for communities living near ports, rail yards, and distribution centers.
The budget plan also cuts environmental and climate programs that households depend on to reduce energy bills. The proposed budget would fully defund the Low Income Home Energy Assistance program, a broadly popular bi-partisan program that helps families with heating and cooling bills, at a time when one in three American households is facing energy insecurity and electricity rates are surging nationwide. The budget also zeroes out the Weatherization Assistance Program, which funds home retrofits that reduce energy consumption and help families stay safe during extreme heat and cold.
Highlights from FY 27 EPA Budget Proposal
The White House is seeking $4.2 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in fiscal year 2027, a more than 50 percent cut from the $8.8 billion that Congress provided in fiscal year 2026. Below are highlights on what programs are being cut:
Elimination of Key Community Programs
- Full elimination of environmental justice programs, calling out a range of community initiatives, including tiny homes for immigrants and school curriculum on climate change and the causes of environmental injustice. This elimination includes the Community Change Grants (CCG) program, which was created to foster community-led solutions that directly target environmental health disparities, leading to cleaner air, safer water, and healthier living conditions for vulnerable populations. Awarded funds under the CCG program had already been rescinded by the Trump Administration, and remaining funds had been repealed through HR1 despite the EPA’s Inspector General finding that the program had been administered with integrity.
- Research and development for environmental justice work is also cut from the budget, and $277 million is requested instead for what it characterizes as statutorily required research. Initiatives previously supported under this line item will no longer be supported.
- No additional funding for Superfund cleanups, limiting cleanup funds to those generated by Superfund taxes, Democrats reinstated. The budget plan specifically calls for the elimination of Superfund funding used for environmental justice initiatives. EPA’s Superfund program is responsible for cleaning up some of the nation’s most contaminated sites, such as toxic waste dumps. The program also responds to environmental emergencies, oil spills, and natural disasters. As of last year, there were 1,340 seriously contaminated active sites nationwide. About 13 million people live within 3 miles of a Superfund site. According to a recent EPA Inspector General Report, some Superfund sites are at risk from multiple natural-disaster threats, from storm surge to wildfires. The limits on federal resources for the Superfund program mean that the families living near these sites, who often cannot afford to move and may not even be aware of the risks, will remain exposed to deadly contaminants.
- The State and Tribal Assistance Grants STAG program provides essential funding and technical assistance to states, local governments, and tribal nations to protect Americans’ air, water, food, and health. The President’s FY 2027 budget proposes to cut these grants by 83%. These grants are critical to reducing Americans’ exposure to toxic chemicals and pollution by supporting air quality management, drinking water and clean water infrastructure, brownfields cleanup, diesel emission reductions, pesticide enforcement, and local capacity to protect Americans’ air, water, and food quality.
- Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) grants, including projects to support cleaner boats, buses, and tractors. DERA has been one of the most successful EPA programs. Between 2008 and 2018, DERA led to cleaner air across the country by preventing emissions of 491,000 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and 16,800 tons of particulate matter (PM), creating $8 billion in health benefits. Without DERA funding, communities living near ports, rail yards, and distribution centers will continue to breathe toxic air.
- State and Local Air Quality Management Grants, a categorical grant program under STAG, are a cornerstone of the Clean Air Act’s public health protections, providing critical funds for state, local and tribal agencies to detect unsafe air, implement national air quality standards, reduce pollution from major industrial sources, and protect Americans from air pollution linked to cancer, heart disease, asthma, developmental harms and premature death. The President’s FY 2027 budget proposes to eliminate State and Local Air Quality Management grants.
- Atmospheric Protection Program, including the conduct of equity and environmental justice analysis as it relates to greenhouse gases.
- Advocating that the State Revolving Funds (SRFs) stop receiving federal funding, despite high drinking water infrastructure investment needs, including improvements to address PFAS contamination and the risks to drinking water infrastructure posed by climate change.
New Funding
- Additional funding for permitting activities, including $14 million for NEPAssist to support permitting under the National Environmental Permitting Act, consistent with EO 14514, “Unleashing American Energy,” which heavily incentivizes the build-out of fossil fuel infrastructure.
- $122 million for drinking water programs
Highlights from FY27 DOE Budget Proposal
DOE is proposed to be funded at $53.9 billion overall, representing a 10 percent increase from FY2026 enacted levels. Most of this budget goes toward defense-related items. The budget also makes a point to emphasize its commitment to boosting AI and is aligned with the new organizational structure set forth in 2025, while significantly reducing funds for climate and environment initiatives historically funded at the agency.
Impacts on key programs
- Provides $1.1 billion for the Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, reducing funding for projects previously supported under the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable energy including a $14 million equity workforce partnership program for solar deployment.
- Cancels funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), which supports energy efficiency improvements for low-income households. WAP has been a critical program in making homes healthier and has reduced families’ energy bills.
- Cancels $15.2 billion in funding for intermittent energy infrastructure (presumably renewable energy) and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS)
- Reduces funding for the Office of Science, cutting climate change, energy, and environment research while maintaining funding for AI, quantum science, fusion, and critical minerals
- Slashes funding for Environmental Management by $386 million, requesting $8.2 billion specifically to address legacy waste cleanup efforts
- Reduces funding and support for EVs and CCUS direct air capture technologies.
New funding
- Redirects $4.7 billion in unspecified Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to the generation of new baseload power (presumably from fossil fuels) and to support seven AI supercomputers at the National Labs.
- Adds $3.6 billion for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to develop new warheads, among other defense capabilities
- $89 million to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)
- Expands funding for Energy-Water Security
We urge Congress to deny the steep cuts proposed to health and community well-being program funding in the Administration’s Budget Request for fiscal year 2027.
Environmental justice: Why is it essential to protecting public health?
- All people, regardless of race, income, or ZIP code, have a fundamental right to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live in healthy and safe communities. Protecting this basic right and freedom is a matter of justice and a fundamental duty that the federal government must uphold for all Americans.
- Environmental justice means restoring and protecting a healthy environment wherever people live, play, work, learn, grow, and pray.
- Industrial facilities, power plants, and Superfund sites— areas contaminated by harmful industrial waste—are disproportionately sited in working-class, low-income, and Black and Latino communities, leading to higher rates of cancer, asthma, and other life-threatening health problems among these communities. Roads and highways, many of which were intentionally built through Black communities, bring pollution from gas-powered cars and diesel-fueled trucks to surrounding neighborhoods.
- Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities face unequal living conditions due to long-standing disinvestment and economic inequality driven by discriminatory policies like mortgage redlining. Deteriorating infrastructure and limited access to green spaces heighten their vulnerability to climate change and reduce their ability to respond to and recover from its effects. For instance, heat waves cause more deaths annually than any other extreme weather event, with the greatest impact on Black, brown, and Indigenous populations.
The elimination of all federal environmental justice programs, including community-led solutions addressing pollution and climate impacts, research, and data collection critical for protecting vulnerable communities, will disproportionately harm: low-income communities, Black, Latino, Indigenous, and frontline communities, children, seniors, and people with pre-existing health conditions.
