Summer 2025 - Flipbook - Page 4
ASCE Government Relations Update
Matthew McGinn, Senior Manager, Federal Government Relations
ASCE submits letters on federal funding priorities
ASCE has submitted letters to the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittees on Fiscal Year
(FY) 2026 funding for a number of federal agencies. While Congress just recently completed work
on FY 2025 funding, work is under way pulling together the 2026 budget. ASCE’s letters touched on
federal agencies involved in infrastructure and called for Congress to continue the funding levels of
recent years which helped increase the nation’s infrastructure grade in the most recent ASCE Report
Card.
The letters promote funding for the Department of Transportation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the
Environmental Protection Agency, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The letters also
express support for critical research and data collection at the National Science Foundation, National
Institute of Standards and Technology, and U.S. Geological Survey.
ASCE questions proposed federal cuts to NOAA and NIST
In two letters sent to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on April 21st, ASCE advised against
proposed and on-going funding cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). One letter expressed the importance
of continued support and robust funding for NOAA. ASCE noted that NOAA is indispensable
in protecting public safety and ensuring that limited federal spending is dedicated to building
infrastructure that is resilient to increasingly severe weather events.
In the second letter, ASCE raised concerns over decisions to cut funding and personnel at NIST.
Noting that NIST is the premier, and in most cases, the only federal institution conducting resilience
research focused on the impact of multiple hazards on buildings and communities.
Trump administration 昀椀res climate report scientists and cancels EPA grants
At the end of April, the Trump administration 昀椀red nearly 400 scientists tasked with producing the
next National Climate Assessment, a report which details the e昀昀ects of climate change on the United
States and, is mandated by Congress to be written every four years. The last National Climate
Assessment, released in 2023, warned that the e昀昀ects of climate change would continue to worsen
over the next 10 years and that increasingly severe weather events were the result of a warming
climate. The next assessment is due to be released in 2027, but its future remains uncertain in light of
the administration’s actions.
It was also reported that the Trump administration was in the process of canceling nearly 800
previously approved Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grants, including all grants provided
through EPA environmental justice programs. Many of these grants support communities
disproportionately a昀昀ected by climate change in combatting the e昀昀ects of increasingly severe and
unpredictable weather. The number of grants reported to be headed toward cancellation is more than
twice the number of grants cancelled than the administration had previously reported.
House subcommittee holds hearing on brown昀椀elds program
On May 7th, the House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources &
Environment held a hearing focused on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Brown昀椀elds
Program. The Brown昀椀elds Program provides grants to communities to support cleanup and
redevelopment of contaminated former industrial sites.
www.asce.org/ewri • EWRI Currents • Volume 27 Number 3 • Summer 2025
