Washington – Today the House Appropriations Committee released its FY2027 appropriations bill for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. The proposed spending legislation includes substantial cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds (SRFs), which are the primary source of federal funding for our nation’s water and wastewater systems. 

The bill seeks to cut funding for EPA by 20 percent, including a nearly quarter cut to the SRFs. The Clean Water and Drinking Water SRFs would be slashed by 24 percent, or $662 million, from $2.8 billion to $2.1 billion – the lowest levels in nearly two decades. 

While the House Republican proposal includes substantial cuts to these programs, it rejects the more extreme proposal from the Trump Administration. The White House had proposed a nearly 90 percent cut to the programs with the intention of eliminating all federal support in the future. 

Meanwhile, the cost of necessary improvements to U.S. water and wastewater systems has ballooned to more than $1 trillion, according to the latest needs survey of the U.S. EPA. Water and wastewater systems face growing stresses from extreme storms, flooding and droughts, as well as the water demands from the AI data center buildout. 

In response, Mary Grant, water program director at Food & Water Watch, issued the following statement:

“At a time when households across the country are struggling with skyrocketing utility bills, House Republicans have released a callous plan that would drive up water bills and jeopardize access to safe water for millions of people across the country. Local communities in every state rely on the State Revolving Fund programs to make critical improvements to keep water and sewer systems safe and reliable. When federal support is cut, many communities are forced to choose between forgoing a necessary safe water project or hiking water bills even higher for households and local businesses. 

“Congress must reject these cuts and instead fully fund our nation’s essential water programs. We need to protect the State Revolving Fund programs from these dangerous annual spending battles by passing the WATER Act (HR 3376, S 1730) to create a permanent water trust fund.”