New EPA guidance says spending items greater than $50,000 must get
approval from DOGE
[March 08, 2025]
By MATTHEW DALY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency has issued new
guidance directing that spending items greater than $50,000 now require
approval from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The guidance, issued this week, escalates the role that the new
efficiency group, known as DOGE, plays in EPA operations.
“Any assistance agreement, contract or interagency agreement transaction
(valued at) $50,000 or greater must receive approval from an EPA DOGE
team member," the EPA guidance says, according to documents obtained by
The Associated Press.
To facilitate the DOGE team review, EPA staff members have been directed
to submit a one-page explanation of each funding action each day between
3 and 6 p.m. Eastern time, the guidance says. Other relevant forms also
must be completed.
President Donald Trump has tasked DOGE with digging up what he and Musk
call waste, fraud and abuse. The Republican president suggested Thursday
that Cabinet members and agency leaders would take the lead on spending
and staffing cuts, but he said Musk could push harder down the line.
“If they can cut, it’s better," Trump said of agency leaders. “And if
they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”
The EPA did not respond to a request Friday for comment.
Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee, called the new directive
“troubling,'' adding that it means agency actions, including routine
contracts and grant awards, “now face unnecessary bureaucratic delays."
Routine expenditures such as grants for air and water quality
monitoring, laboratory equipment purchases, hazardous waste disposal at
federal sites and money for municipal recycling programs are among
spending that likely will be affected, he said.
Whitehouse, an outspoken critic of Musk and Trump, said the involvement
of Musk’s “unvetted, inexperienced team raises serious concerns about
improper external influence on specialized agency decision-making."
In a letter Friday to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Whitehouse said
spending actions greater than $50,000 are often complex and require
specialized knowledge of environmental science, policy and regulations.
“Allowing unskilled, self-proclaimed ‘experts,’ not vetted for conflicts
of interest, to have veto power over funding determinations is
inappropriate and risks compromising the agency’s mission to protect
public health and the environment," Whitehouse wrote.
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EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin speaks at the East Palestine Fire
Department in East Palestine, Ohio, Feb. 3, 2025. (Rebecca Droke/Pool
Photo via AP, File)
An EPA directive says the new guidance is intended to comply with
executive orders issued by Trump that seek to restrict federal
spending.
Whitehouse called those orders illegal, adding, “It is already
established by court order that it is Congress that authorizes and
appropriates funds for specific purposes, not the Office of
Management and Budget or the president via executive order or DOGE.”
The dispute over the spending guidelines comes as Zeldin has pledged
sharp spending cuts as high as 65% at the agency.
“We don’t need to be spending all that money that went through the
EPA last year,” Zeldin said last week. “We don’t want it. We don’t
need it. The American public needs it and we need to balance the
budget.”
President Joe Biden requested about $10.9 billion for the EPA in the
current budget year, an increase of 8.5% over the previous one, but
Zeldin said the agency needs far less money to do its work. He also
criticized EPA grants authorized under the 2022 climate law,
including $20 billion for a so-called green bank to pay for climate
and clean-energy programs.
Zeldin has vowed to revoke contracts for the still-emerging bank
program that is set to fund tens of thousands of projects to fight
climate change and promote environmental justice.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said last week that Trump,
DOGE and Zeldin are all “committed to cutting waste, fraud, and
abuse."
A 65% reduction in spending would be devastating to the EPA and its
mission, said Marie Owens Powell, president of the American
Federation of Government Employees Council 238. Core actions such as
monitoring air and water quality, responding to natural disasters
and lead abatement, among other agency functions, are at risk, she
said.
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