Trump EPA Reforms: Serving Americans More Effectively Than Ever

America is cleaner than ever — and so is EPA's budget sheet.

Under the previous administration, EPA spending climbed while core statutory work fell behind, leaving backlogs across the agency. The Trump EPA has been aggressively fixing that — delivering EPA's mission faster and more successfully while saving taxpayers money at every turn.

Past - What We Inherited

Rapidly rising spending, misplaced priorities, and extensive backlogs on core statutory obligations throughout the agency.

Present - What We've Delivered

Direct cost savings

The Trump EPA has cut costs across grants, contracts, staffing, real estate, technology, and travel — without slowing the core mission. Highlights:

• Grants & contracts: $30 billion in canceled grants; $825M/year in reduced contracting obligations; $257M in contract cancellations returned to the Treasury; $87M in contract descopes.
• People & organization: $750M/year from staffing efficiencies and agency reorganization.
• Real estate: $30M/year from consolidation — including ~$18M in rent savings from consolidating staff from the Ronald Reagan Building in DC, and ~$5.5M plus ~$560K from vacating the Chapel Hill, NC facilities.
• Technology (OCIO): right-sized Esri GIS licensing ($261K/year); ended a duplicative O365 training contract ($385K/year); deactivated unused mobile lines ($360K/year); terminated a redundant SharePoint eDiscovery license ($90K).
• Everyday savings: $26M less travel in 2025 vs. 2024; $3M/year in canceled software licenses; $500K/year in canceled media subscriptions; $600K/year from closing a rarely visited EPA museum; $100K by moving OAR facilitation and training in-house; $134K (7%) on a chemical-sensing system for the ASPECT emergency-response program; $30K/year by ending a decorative plant-wall maintenance contract.

Scientists at the center of the agency

In 2025, EPA integrated scientists into its program offices and the workforce to match mission needs:

• Created the Office of Applied Science and Environmental Solutions (OASES) to coordinate the agency's science enterprise and strengthen technical assistance to state and local partners.
• Added 130+ scientific, technical, bioinformatics, and IT experts to OCSPP to clear new-chemical and pesticide review backlogs that ran past statutory timelines.
• Stood up the Office of Finance and Administration — a one-stop shop for financial and administrative operations, improving coordination and oversight.
• Realigned enforcement (OECA) to the law and measurable results; updated OLEM to speed cleanups, contamination prevention, and emergency response.
• Created the first-of-its-kind Office of State Air Partnerships and Office of Clean Air Programs for consistent, transparent air permitting nationwide.
• Realigned the Office of Water around the underlying science, plus cybersecurity, emergency response, and water reuse and conservation.
• Ended the previous administration's Environmental Justice and DEI offices, refocusing on EPA's core mission.

Gold-standard science in action

With the agency running leaner and with more scientific rigor, EPA science is solving real problems:

• Committed to eliminating animal testing (restarting a first-term effort), with an expanded list of cutting-edge alternatives released in June 2026.
• Jarosite-based remediation that reduces the bioavailability of lead and arsenic in soil — a cost-effective cleanup alternative.
• Coral reef monitoring with NOAA at Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary using advanced eDNA methods.
• New analytical methods for ricin, for rapid emergency response; validated methods to measure microplastics in drinking water; and the mobile "Water on Wheels" cart delivering safe drinking water after disasters.

Future - What's Next

• Superfund Solutions (launched May 2026): get contaminated sites to the finish line faster with gold-standard science, streamlined decisions, modern tools, and cooperative federalism.
• Keep right-sizing, embedding science in every program office, and returning savings to taxpayers.

By the Numbers