Whitman defends $7.3 billion EPA budget

WASHINGTON (April 9)—The Bush administration´s $7.3 billion budget for the Environmental Protection Agency in fiscal year 2002 is "in line with President Bush´s pledge to create partnerships" to fight pollution, EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said at her agency´s budget briefing. At less than 1 percent over last year´s EPA budget request, the agency´s funding doesn´t keep up with inflation, and it is about $500 million less than what Congress actually voted to give the agency in fiscal 2001. Whitman explained that the fiscal 2001 budget contained special projects put in by Congress. "These were not EPA priorities," she said. The fiscal 2002 budget includes $25 million worth of state grants to help states set their own environmental priorities, as well as specific carveouts for brownfields cleanup, clean water and new environmental information grants.