Amid Government Shutdown, EPA Set to Run Out of Funds

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is set to run out of money, just one week after President Donald Trump prompted a partial government shutdown.

According to a report in The Huffington Post, the EPA’s Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler sent out an email to federal employees on December 27 explaining that the agency would begin shutdown procedures.

While the government officially shut down on December 21, the EPA was able to continue operating because it had saved enough federal funds to carry over into the following week, according to The Huffington Post. Wheeler’s latest message to employees indicates that those funds are running out.

More than 700 EPA employees who are considered essential will be forced to work without pay during the shutdown, while the remaining “non-essential” workers—more than 13,000 employees—will be furloughed, according to the agency’s shutdown contingency plan.

The Huffington Post has more details:

The Environmental Protection Agency is set to run out of money one week after President Donald Trump refused to sign a spending bill because it lacked $5 billion in funding for his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall, prompting a partial government shutdown.  

Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler told federal employees in a Thursday email that the agency would begin shutdown procedures, including steps for furloughed employees, if negotiations over the spending bill remained at a standstill by the end of Friday.

“In the event an appropriation is not passed by midnight Friday, December 28th, EPA will initiate orderly shutdown procedures,” Wheeler wrote in the email obtained by The Hill and Bloomberg Environment. The EPA did not immediately return HuffPost’s request for comment.

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