Washington, D.C. – Today, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley – the Ranking Member of the Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee – delivered the following remarks at the hearing reviewing the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget request for the Environmental Protection Agency with Administrator Lee Zeldin:
Senator Merkley’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below:
“Thank you, Chair Murkowski and congratulations on your chairmanship, a role you have already previously held for six distinguished years, from 2015 through 2020. I look forward to building on our bipartisan partnership in this Subcommittee.
“Administrator Zeldin, welcome. This is the ordinary business of Congress that we conduct every year. But this year is not ordinary. Article I of the U.S. Constitution gives the ‘power of the purse’ to Congress. Under the U.S. Constitution, the President and Executive Branch leaders, like yourself, are required to carry out those spending laws – even when you disagree with them.
“As former Appropriations Chairman Robert C. Byrd said: ‘The legislative control of the purse is the central pillar – the central pillar – upon which the constitutional temple of checks and balances and separation of powers rests, and if that pillar is shaken, the temple will fall. It is central to the fundamental liberty of the American people.’
“But this administration is trying to topple that central pillar of liberty by seizing the power of the purse. President Trump and OMB Director Russell Vought are pursuing a deliberate strategy of impoundments, in which they ignore appropriations laws passed by Congress and withhold funding intended for specific agencies and programs.
“The EPA, the organization you lead, is one of those agencies. This is not the first time that a President has tried to impound funds for the EPA. President Nixon tried in 1973 – but New York City sued and the Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the Executive Branch could not steal Congress’ Constitutional power of the purse. In other words, the Executive Branch must implement the laws passed by the Legislative Branch. That decision was reaffirmed two decades later, in 1998, when the Supreme Court ruled that the Gingrich Congress could not give the Constitutional power of the purse to the Executive Branch through a line-item veto.
“Yet under your leadership, Mr. Zeldin, EPA has illegally and unconstitutionally impounded at least $24.6 billion, including: $1.7 billion in environmental justice grants to help communities address pollution and transition to clean energy. Historically, we know that low-income communities and communities of color have suffered the most from pollution. That’s because powerful people in the world so often look to pollute where there is least resistance. This funding provides funding to these communities who have fewer resources to protect themselves from the impacts of pollution. For instance, Lane County, Oregon was awarded $20 million to provide shelter during wildfires and severe smoke events, including upgrading HVAC systems and backup power, for rural communities, like Oakridge, Veneta, and Cottage Grove.
“Impounded funding also includes $20 billion to leverage private capital investments for solar installation and efficiency upgrades through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Illegally impounding these funds and others EPA is refusing to spend endangers communities by making it harder to address pollution and climate chaos. If these illegal and unconstitutional impoundments weren’t bad enough, your budget proposal makes a bad situation even worse: It’s scant on details, It denigrates science, It antagonizes federal employees, and It undermines the core agency functions.
“A budget is a statement of values and your values are clearly to put the profits of polluters over the interests of the people.
“Your budget slashes EPA funding by 54 percent. Your budget drains 90 percent of funding from the State Revolving Funds, which support communities in meeting standards for tap water and protecting streams and rivers. My state knows the benefits of SRF funding: The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde used funding to develop a toxics reduction plan to mitigate toxic pollution in the Willamette River Basin, and the city of Umatilla has had boil water advisories because of water distribution failures and pressure loss and used this funding to modernize their clean water supply.
“Your budget also eviscerates the states by eliminating $1 billion in grants for cleaning up waterways, complying with air quality requirements, handling hazardous waste properly, and removing lead from drinking water.
“And your budget rips nearly a quarter-billion dollars out of the Office of Research and Development, which conducts the scientific research needed to inform the EPA’s decisions on questions of environmental and public safety. For example, in Oregon, we have ORD labs in Corvallis and Newport that research how chemical contaminants will harm communities and ecosystems along the Pacific Coast, work that is critical to ensure our coastlines are healthy and productive. Pacific Northwest fisheries are the most productive in the world due to the upwelling of nutrients within the California Current System, making this research not just critical to the environment, but our very economy and livelihood.
“Perhaps most troubling, though, your budget takes aim directly at your own employees. The so-called Department of Government Efficiency has already taken a wrecking ball to EPA’s professional staff. EPA is firing – and pushing out by threat – thousands of staff, including scientists and technical specialists whose institutional knowledge is irreplaceable and new staff with nothing but stellar performance reviews. Without adequate staffing, environmental regulations will not be enforced. Without adequate staffing, dangerous pollutants will not be identified. Without adequate staffing, Superfund sites will continue to leak toxic chemicals.
“And all of this is happening while EPA carries out a parade of reckless policy actions tearing down bedrock environmental laws – even allowing industry to simply send one email to get waivers from pollution controls – that threaten our health and the environment we live in.
“Mr. Zeldin, we need an EPA that upholds the Constitution, obeys the law, is properly funded, is fully staffed, and is empowered to address the urgent environmental challenges of our time. The American people expect and deserve nothing less.
“Thank you.”
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