Environmental▼News “This is the first time that a law in Europe has focused on a biological endpoint to prevent ecological harm,” Depledge says. Developing a robust suite of biomarkers that can be used with a wide range of inver-
tebrates, not just fish, will help ensure compliance with the new law. Moreover, by demonstrating that contaminants affect the health and well-being of organisms, the biomarker analysis could lead to a pre-
EPA FY ’05 budget: More or less? President Bush’s fiscal year 2005 (FY ’05) budget, released in February, requests $7.76 billion for the U.S. EPA—a $130 million increase over the administration’s FY ’04 proposal but as much as 7% less than the $8.4 billion Congress appropriated. The overall science and technology (S&T) budget takes a bigger hit in the proposed budget, dropping some $93 million, or 12%, from congressional funding for FY ’04. In announcing the budget, EPA Administrator Mike Leavitt focused on the program funds that would increase when they are compared to Bush’s request for last year, rather than comparing the figures to what Congress provided. Leavitt touted the requested $33 million for the agency’s operating programs—a 1% increase over Bush’s request last year—that would be the highest funding level in history, he said. These funds support the agency’s core regulatory, research, enforcement, and state grant programs. Leavitt pledged to “pursue even better ways to care for the environment and protect people’s health [by] increasing the velocity of improvement.” He added, “The approach of the last 30 years has been too slow, too expensive, and produced too much conflict.” To accomplish these goals, Leavitt said that EPA would be more focused on results than programs, relying on market incentives, collaborative networks, and technology. A number of Democrats and others in Congress criticized the request, including Sen. James Jeffords (I-Vt.) of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The request cuts funding for almost every program the committee oversees, Jeffords said, such as a $21 million, or 3%, cut for the clean air and
global climate change programs. The new budget still needs to get through Congress, and in recent years lawmakers have added significant “earmarks” for special projects in individual members’ districts. EPA budgeters tried to impose some discipline by removing as much as $524 million in last year’s earmarks from the budget request. The earmarks included $52 million for research, said Paul Gilman, EPA’s Science Advisor and head of the Office of Research and Development. EPA’s requested FY ’05 S&T budget is $689.1 million. Within this budget, EPA is asking for a $4 million increase, from $8.9 to $13 million, for computational toxicology, a request that most likely reflects Gilman’s emphasis on bringing life sciences methods into the agency. Increases are also requested for air toxics research (from $15.7 to $17.6 million) and for particulate matter research programs (a slight amount that will bring the PM research total to $63.7 million). The S&T cuts would be spread across programs targeting endocrine disrupters (from $12.9 to $8 million), pollution prevention (from $38.9 to $34 million), land protection and restoration (from $36.5 to $33 million), pesticides and toxics (from $36.7 to $29 million), and human health and ecosystems (from $190.7 to $144.7 million), Gilman said. Most other research programs would receive small funding increases or remain the same, while some would see minor funding decreases. However, funding for the Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program to support university grants would be cut by $35 million, to total $65 million. Under the request, 5 of the 14 or 15 projects EPA intended to
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ventative approach whereby chemicals are regulated on the basis of health risks, rather than on the need to prove a connection to actual declines in animal populations, he says. —JANET PELLEY
pursue in FY ’05 would not be funded, Gilman said. When Leavitt unveiled the budget, he highlighted a number of requested increases, including a $60 million increase, to $65 million, for the Clean School Bus USA program. The funds will help school districts replace pre-1991 school buses with those offering state-ofthe-art emission controls and retrofit post-1990 school buses. Bush proposed a 10% increase in Superfund monies, which will fund 8–12 new construction starts in 2005 and a similar number in 2006. Environmental groups, however, complained that Congress has not reinstated the Superfund tax on the oil, gas, and chemicals industries and therefore taxpayers, rather than the industries that created the pollution, are footing the cleanup bill. Leavitt also announced a $45 million, or fivefold, increase in funds for the Great Lakes Legacy program to support sediment remediation at six sites and a $10 million pilot program to reduce nutrient input into the Chesapeake Bay. Bush tagged on an additional $1 million for invasive species and another $20 million for water quality monitoring, the latter having emerged as a major topic. Environmental groups complained that these targeted funds would be offset by the huge decrease in funding Bush proposed for water quality: the elimination of $492 million from last year’s budget for the Clean Water Act State Revolving fund, which helps states build sewage treatment plants. Bush proposed a similar cut last year, and Congress reinstated almost $500 million for the program. Funds for nonpoint source pollution control drop by $30 million. —CATHERINE COONEY and ALAN NEWMAN
