The White House recently released its budget request for fiscal year 2027 (FY2027), which, similar to its FY2026 request, included more proposed cuts to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State Revolving Loan Funds (SRFs).
According to an analysis in the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies’ (AMWA) Monday Morning Briefing, which regularly provides policy updates, the president’s FY2027 budget request includes a roughly 50% cut to EPA’s overall budget and a 90% reduction to the Clean and Drinking Water SRFs. The proposal is similar to the request made for FY2026 that included an overall 55% cut to EPA, but was mostly restored in the final enacted budget.
Likewise, AMWA noted that early reaction to the FY2027 budget request indicates Congress is still likely to fund the programs at similar levels to FY2026.
The Clean Water and Drinking Water SRFs aid thousands of water and wastewater projects across the country. The SRFs revolve at the state level to provide local utilities access to affordable financing and are bolstered through annual federal investment. Together, the two programs represent about a third of EPA’s total annual budget.
The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) also weighed in on social media about the president’s budget request.
“While shocking, we saw these destructive proposals last year – and Congress rightfully rejected them,” NACWA posted on LinkedIn. “Any budget that aims to keep America strong, healthy, resilient, and secure cannot come at the expense of clean and safe water for all. NACWA looks forward to working with Congress again to ensure these cuts are rejected.”
The Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program is also at risk for a significant reduction, as the White House budget calls for no new funding to the program (aside from administrative funds), which received about $72 million in total funds in FY2026, AMWA said.
The WIFIA program is an EPA-operated bank that provides supplemental, flexible, low-cost credit assistance to public and private borrowers for all types of drinking water, wastewater and stormwater projects. WIFIA offers long-term loans that can be combined with State Revolving Fund assistance, municipal bonds, and federal and state grants to help communities deliver more critical water infrastructure projects for a lower cost with less impact on rate payers. Like a bank, the WIFIA program is intended to have funding available on an ongoing basis to allow prospective borrowers to request financing on their schedule.
In some positive news, AMWA explained that requests for the Reducing Lead in Drinking Water and Midsize and Large Drinking Water System Infrastructure Resilience and Sustainability grant programs would retain level funding to FY2026, at $20 million and $2.25 million respectively.
Read AMWA’s update of the White House budget request here.
Source: AMWA, NACWA
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