Budget Cuts Impact Environmental Oversight
Dec, 28 2025
Duggan emphasized that diminished resources lead to a failure in realizing the environmental rights guaranteed to Americans under existing laws. President Donald Trump’s budget proposal for 2026 suggests a 55 percent cut to the EPA’s funding, amounting to $4.2 billion. House Republicans have proposed a 25 percent reduction, while the Senate Appropriations Committee has recommended a 5 percent cut.
These proposed reductions would exacerbate the EPA's financial challenges, which have already seen a 40 percent budget decrease and an 18 percent reduction in workforce over the past 15 years. Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, over 3,000 EPA employees have either retired or been terminated as part of the administration's efforts to reduce the agency's size.
As a result of these cuts, states are expected to assume greater responsibility for environmental oversight, aligning with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s vision of empowering state agencies. However, the Trump administration's proposal to eliminate most EPA grants to states undermines their capacity to manage this increased responsibility.
In Texas, for instance, the budget for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has been reduced by one-third over the last decade, adjusted for inflation. The agency faces challenges in retaining experienced staff, with 30 percent of its workforce having less than two years of experience. Kathryn Guerra, a former TCEQ employee now with Public Citizen, stated that funding cuts have rendered the agency largely ineffective, and further cuts to the EPA will exacerbate this issue.
The TCEQ's biennial report indicates that it takes an average of 351 days to process a single enforcement case, with a backlog of 1,400 cases. Guerra pointed out that this inefficiency means communities are left without relief from pollution.
The report identifies states with the most significant budget cuts to environmental agencies from 2010 to 2024, including Mississippi (71 percent), South Dakota (61 percent), Alabama (49 percent), Texas (33 percent), and Montana (32 percent). North Carolina has also experienced budget contractions, with the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) budget declining by 32 percent from 2010 to 2014, although a restructuring in 2015 complicates the assessment of these reductions.
Drew Ball, director of Southeast Campaigns for the Natural Resources Defense Council, highlighted the real-world impacts of these cuts, particularly in North Carolina, where families face contaminated water and inadequate responses to environmental threats. Despite population growth of over 5 percent from 2020 to 2024, the DEQ's budget has decreased when adjusted for inflation.
In 2019, the DEQ budget was $97.4 million, equivalent to $123.7 million today, while the 2023 budget totaled $108.7 million, or $115.8 million in today’s dollars, reflecting a 6 percent decrease compared to four years prior. The agency's reliance on permitting fees has also been affected by cleaner air regulations, leading to a 54 percent drop in billable tons over the past decade, even as the number of staff has decreased by 19 percent.
In 2024, the North Carolina legislature increased permit fees to address budget shortfalls. The DEQ has faced the largest staffing cuts among environmental agencies from 2010 to 2024, with Connecticut, Arizona, Louisiana, Missouri, and Kansas also experiencing significant reductions.
The DEQ has struggled to retain or hire employees, with vacancy rates exceeding 20 percent at its peak three years ago. Ball noted that the agency's wages, determined by the legislature, are unable to compete with the private sector, further complicating staffing issues. He concluded that the combination of shrinking budgets, staff, and political support, alongside proposed federal cuts to the EPA, poses a significant risk to environmental protection efforts in states like North Carolina.