In Federal Funding, Urgent Issues, Water policy

Keeping Up with Water Decision-Making in Washington, DC – April 15, 2025

Let’s start with a fact we already know to be true: clean, safe, reliable drinking water and healthy rivers are a top priority for the people in your community – and your community is not alone in this belief. Whether your community is urban or rural, in the West, Midwest, South, mid Atlantic or Northeast, clean water matters to the people in your community.

📣 Share your story! How is your organization and/or community being affected by changes to federal funding? What are the immediate impacts on your work and what impacts do you anticipate in the near future? Fill out this Google Form to share.

As the new Administration and Congress takes shape, River Network wants to be a source you can turn to on an ongoing basis to know and understand what the Administration and Congress are proposing that will impact water in your community.

One way to stay up to speed is the Monthly Water Policy Updates and Calls hosted by River Network, the Clean Water for All Coalition, Earth Justice, and Clean Water Network for NGO water advocates. If you are a water advocate affiliated with an NGO, you can sign up for the calls here.

We plan to use this space, River Network’s blog, to keep you updated on ongoing basis. So please sign up for our email list to get the latest updates and plan to check back regularly to learn what’s new.

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📰 Recent Updates

    • EPA & OTHER AGENCIES – Federal Funding Cuts Related to the National Climate Assessment (April 9th Reporting): Federal officials shared with Politico that funding is being canceled for the US Global Change Research Program, which is essential for updates of The National Climate Assessment, a Congressionally-mandated report on the causes and impacts of climate change in the US. Relatedly, anonymous officials at NASA shared that the agency canceled a contract with the consulting firm ICF International, which plays a critical multi-agency coordination role for completion of the Assessment. NASA employees expressed doubt the next Climate Assessment, due by 2027, is unlikely to be completed. The most recent National Climate Assessment, published in late 2023, included chapters on water, ecosystems, coasts, oceans,  human health, and social justice among a litany of other key topics. 
    • EPA & OTHER AGENCIES – A memo was sent out to FEMA staff which outlined a new process, effective immediately, requiring that the majority of the agency’s workers, many of whom hold 2-to-4-year term positions, be directly approved by Secretary Noem’s team in order to be renewed for another term. The impacted positions, according to the memo, include the Cadre of On-Call Response Employees (CORE), Reservists, Local Hires, and Temporary Fulltime Employees. CORE and Reservist employees make up roughly 74% of FEMA’s workforce, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. 
    • EPA & OTHER AGENCIES –  A memo from Trump administration reviewing “all disaster relief programs that may indirectly or incidentally aid illegal aliens,” it also orders the agency to review nongovernmental organizations that “provide assistance” to undocumented immigrants. That could include groups like the American Red Cross that offer food, shelter and medical care to disaster survivors regardless of their immigration status.
    • EPA & OTHER AGENCIES – “Zero-Based Regulatory Budgeting to Unleash American Energy” Executive Order (April 9th): This order requires agencies, including the EPA, DOE, FERC, NRC, DOI, and ACE to add expiration dates or “Conditional Sunset Dates” to existing and new energy-related regulations. These agencies have until September 30th to add these sunset dates, which cannot be more than 5 years into the future. These regulations automatically lapse unless actively renewed or extended (which would be determined by the Administration in power). The agencies in question must work with DOGE to implement this order. Some of the laws relevant to the order include: the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Agencies would need significant capacity and resources to continuously review and justify existing rules, including those with broad-based support, made more difficult by recent calls for staff reductions, including 65% at EPA. As a result, important environmental and safety regulations could lapse due to lack of capacity or Presidential political will.  
    • EPA & OTHER AGENCIES – “Directing the Repeal of Unlawful Regulations” Executive Order (April 9th): This Executive Order tied to DOGE claims there are regulations still on the books after subsequent Supreme Court decisions that should have led to their removal. Ten Supreme Court decisions are cited, mostly pertaining to the environment. The order directs all agency secretaries and leaders to identify these “unlawful regulations” within 60 days and plans to repeal them. Importantly, the order claims “notice-and-comment proceedings are “unnecessary’ where repeal is required as a matter of law to ensure consistency with a Supreme Court ruling.” This means the public will not be able to comment on this pending repeals list. 
    • EPA & OTHER AGENCIES – Challenging State & Local Climate Action Executive Order (April 8th): This Executive Order prompts the US Attorney General to “stop the enforcement” of state and local climate laws deemed “illegal” because they “are fundamentally irreconcilable with my Administration’s objective to unleash American energy.” The order makes specific reference to New York and Vermont “climate superfund laws” which require fossil fuel companies to pay for damages from extreme weather caused by their outsized greenhouse gas emissions. Lawsuits against fossil fuel companies by local governments and states are also targeted by the order. The order calls for a report from the attorney general on “illegal” policies within 60 days.
    • EPA & OTHER AGENCIES – Senate EPW Approves Nomination for Jessica Kramer to lead EPA Office of Water (April 9th): The committee voted 15-4 to confirm Kramer.  
    • EPA & OTHER AGENCIES – EPA Terminates Environmental Justice Staff & Closes Offices (March 12th): This memo eliminated offices of environmental justice at all 10 EPA regional offices and the main office in Washington. The Administration said the cuts were connected to larger efforts to “end wasteful spending” and diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. More specifically, EPA leadership claimed environmental justice programs aimed to help Americans in our most polluted communities are “forced discrimination programs”. 
    • WATER POLICY – Eliminating Household Water Conservation Measures Executive Order (April 9th): The White House statement on this executive order states it “restores shower freedom.” This April 9th order changed the definition of “showerhead”, removing water pressure and water conservation efforts from showerheads sold in the US. A Newsweek article in response stated, “minimum water efficiency standards for toilets, showerheads, faucets, and urinals have been in place since the Federal Energy Policy Act passed under President George H.W. Bush in 1992.” These regulations and clarifications issued by the Obama Administration aimed to conserve water, lower energy use from water heating, and lower utility bills. This decision comes amidst a backdrop of water scarcity concerns across the country, particularly in the Western states. 
    • WATER POLICY – RFK Jr & Fluoride in Drinking Water (April 7th): Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Health and Human Services Secretary, held a press conference in Salt Lake City on April 7th after Utah recently began the first state to ban fluoridation in drinking water. He announced he plans to tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending drinking water fluoridation. The same day, the EPA under Secretary Lee Zeldin, shared it is reviewing “new scientific information” on health risks of fluoridation. The EPA is responsible for the application and enforcement of the Safe Drinking Water Act, which sets public drinking water regulations.  
    • WATER POLICY – WOTUS Rule Update: In March, EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers announced they plan to revise the definition of “Waters of the United States.” Further narrowing the definition so that fewer wetlands, streams, and other waters receive protections was one of the main goals identified in Project 2025. To inform this process, the agencies are gathering input from various stakeholders through a 30-day public comment period (ending April 23, 2025) and a series of six listening sessions (to be held in late April and early May).  
    • WATER POLICY – Delaware River Dissolved Oxygen Rule Update (April 1st): The EPA confirmed its intention to finalize a rule revising water quality standards for a section of the Delaware River from Philadelphia to Wilmington. Previously, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and EPA settled a federal lawsuit and reached a consent decree requiring EPA to implement the new rule by June 30, 2025. The aim of the rule is to increase dissolved oxygen levels, essential for fish survival, including the endangered Atlantic sturgeon. However, it remains unclear what rule language the Trump EPA intends to implement, and how this language will be reconciled with its previous Executive Orders and actions.  
    • WATER POLICY – “Massive 10:1 Deregulation Initiative” Executive Order (January 31st): This Executive Order requires that any agency that promulgates a new rule, regulation, or guidance “must identify at least 10 existing rules, regulations, or guidance documents to be repealed.” It also requires that “for fiscal year 2025, the total incremental cost of all new regulations, including repealed regulations, be significantly less than zero.” The Administration cites that this order nearly doubles its first term result of eliminating five and a half regulations for each new one issued. This Executive Order across all agencies, also applies to regulations protecting water and air quality, designating and cleaning up toxic lands, protecting species, and much more. 
    • ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE – “Preventing Abuses of the Legal System and the Federal Court” Memo (March 22nd): This White House memorandum authorized the Attorney General and Department of Homeland Security to sanction law firms that file lawsuits the Administration deems “frivolous”. The memo also ordered the Attorney General to make recommendations on the revocation of security clearances and the termination of federal contracts with law firms involved in these “frivolous suits.” The memo follows three Executive Orders targeting specific law firms involved in cases arguing against the President. That day, almost two dozen civil rights groups condemned the action.  
    • ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE – Department of Justice (DOJ) Terminates of Lowndes County, Alabama Sewage Pollution Settlement (April 11th): Two years ago, the Biden Administration’s DOJ and Department of Health and Human Services negotiated a settlement with the state of Alabama to improve wastewater treatment infrastructure for residents in Lowndes County, Alabama. On April 11, the Trump Administration terminated the settlement, calling it “an illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.” Lowndes County is home to a majority-black population, and the Biden-era settlement marked the first time federal civil rights laws were foundational to address environmental injustice. 

💧 Water Policy

💵 Water Funding

  • The Administration implemented a wide-ranging freeze of federal funding that is impacting, among many other vital services, a broad set of programs that directly support clean water, flood protection, and community resilience. The Unleashing American Energy Executive Order also directed all agencies to immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Over 700 communities are affected just within River Network’s federally funded programs.
  • The Administration’s Executive Order “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” directs federal agencies to provide the Office of Management and Budget with a list of “Federal grantees who received Federal funding to provide or advance DEI, DEIA,” or “environmental justice programs, services, or activities since January 20, 2021.”

🏛️ EPA & Other Federal Agencies

🌱 Environmental Justice

🗣️ Action Items

  • Reach out to your Members of Congress: It’s critical that they hear from you about the real-world positive difference federal funds, programs, and protections make to ensure clean water and resilience for your community.
  • Share your experiences: Tell River Network about how freezes on federal funding and changes to federal programs and protections are impacting water and people in your community.

🛠️ Resources

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