The Trump administration’s proposed budget cuts billions in Environmental Protection Agency funds, but Rep. Tom Cole, the top appropriator in the House, doesn’t want environmental research in his district to become collateral damage.
Cole, an Oklahoma Republican who has a reputation for working as a bipartisan negotiator, may think that the EPA’s budget is “bloated,” as he put it, but he’s focused on making sure resources for his district remain in place. He has said he successfully negotiated with DOGE and the administration to prevent cuts at a Social Security office, an Indian Health Services office and a National Weather Center location.
At a House Appropriations hearing last week, Cole pressed the EPA’s administrator, Lee Zeldin, over deep cuts that could impact the Robert S. Kerr Environmental Research Center in Ada, Oklahoma. The center researches groundwater and soil quality, and the administration plans to cut funding for research not required by Congress, reduce personnel and dissolve the EPA’s Office of Research and Development, the arm that oversees the facility.