New EDF Action analyses reveal clean air, water programs are at risk unless congress rejects proposed funding cuts 

(WASHINGTON, D.C. – September 10, 2025) Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Action, the advocacy partner of the Environmental Defense Fund, released new analyses revealing that core protections for clean air and water are on the chopping block unless Congress takes action. The analyses detail how President Trump’s budget proposes dangerous cuts that put public health and safety at risk in five states – Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania. 

The proposed budget threatens to decimate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by slashing its overall budget by more than half, including gutting key funding that provides safe drinking water and air quality monitoring across the country. 

“These proposed cuts would eliminate essential programs that communities rely on every day to breathe clean air and drink safe water,” said Joanna Slaney, Vice President for Political and Government Affairs at EDF Action. “Without adequate funding for clean air, clean water and enforcement, people will be less healthy while polluters will face fewer consequences.”

Key findings include: 

• Over 86% reduction in Drinking Water State Revolving Funds and 90% reduction in Clean Water State Revolving Funds – a loss of more than $2.4 billion in low-interest loans and financial assistance to public water systems resulting in serious consequences like infrastructure degradation. 

• Elimination of funding for State & Local Air Quality Management Grants – threatening state and local agency layoffs, monitoring cutbacks and the potential shutdown of critical air quality programs. 

• Deep cuts to enforcement budgets – leaving numerous state agencies without the resources to address violations by major polluters and increasing the risk of unchecked pollution impacting families across the country. 

“If these devastating funding cuts are made, all of us will be sicker, and our children will suffer the most,” said Betsy Southerland, former Director of the Office of Science and Technology in EPA’s Office of Water. “With their developing bodies and immune systems, they will be immediately harmed by increased exposure to pollutants in their air and water that damage their cognitive development, impair their ability to fight disease, increase asthma and other respiratory diseases, and generally worsen life outcomes.” 

Congress has an opportunity and a responsibility to reject these egregious funding cuts. The bipartisan funding bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee proposes maintaining steady funding for the EPA with slight budget reductions.

About EDF Action

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Action is the advocacy partner of Environmental Defense Fund and is active in over a dozen states across the country. EDF Action focuses on influencing public policy and legislation to address critical environmental issues through lobbying, grassroots organizing, and electoral work.