Senior lawmakers rejected the Trump administration’s proposal to cut the US Environmental Protection Agency budget by 31%, opting instead to make no cuts to the EPA’s funding for the 2018 fiscal year in its bipartisan spending bill released late Wednesday (March 22).
Instead of gutting the agency’s budget, the spending bill would keep it at $8.1 billion, the same level of funding as fiscal year 2017, the Hill reports.
The spending bill still needs to pass both chambers of the US Congress and be signed by president Trump on Friday to avoid a government shutdown. But according to E&E News, both the House and Senate are expected to swiftly pass it.