‘Shoulder to the Wheel’: EPA Girds for 2023

As the Environmental Protection Agency looks ahead to 2023 and facing empowered Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Bracewell Policy Resolution Group Principal Joseph Brazauskas told E&E News that the agency has much it wants to accomplish and little time to do it.

“They’re going to be doing this during the first meaningful congressional oversight that the Biden administration will have to face,” said Brazauskas. “They have a big test and a lot to do.”

Beyond moving a big regulatory package, the EPA is also standing up a national program office for environmental justice, which will require a Senate-confirmed leader.

“I think that the Biden administration has a bit more of a glide path now in the Senate,” he added. “They don’t need Sen. Manchin to get those nominees across the finish line.”

GOP lawmakers are also expected to propose cuts, not increases, for EPA and other agencies, which will have to be reconciled with the Democratic-controlled Senate.

“Across the board, Republicans have put a line in the sand on new spending,” Brazauskas said.

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