While federal employees avoided a worst-case scenario in the debt limit deal that was reached this week, it may just be a matter of time before massive budget cuts and workforce reductions are instituted.

And when Congress reconvenes in September, House Republicans plan to return to the task of passing spending bills that would slash agency funding.

But one U.S. EPA union is using this month's recess to launch a new public relations campaign to try to build grass-roots support for the agency and put pressure on the lawmakers who are intent on putting EPA on the chopping block.

The American Federation of Government Employees National Council No. 238 today launched its "Save the Environment-Save the EPA" campaign in an effort to highlight the dangers that deep budget cuts would have on the ability of EPA to protect human health and the environment. The effort includes the launch of a new website, www.savetheepa.com, and a social media campaign to raise awareness about the work that EPA employees do.

"What is the point of cutting EPA's budget today to reduce the federal deficit if the end result is more illness and death due to a short-sighted focus on costs with no consideration of the benefits of spending?" Council President Chuck Orzehoskie said in a release today. "Some people have forgotten that EPA's budget protects future generations from the harmful effects previous and current generations have caused."

Council Treasurer John O'Grady said the next step of the campaign will be to partner with one or more environmental interest groups to conduct surveys in the districts and states of members of Congress who are leading the charge to cut EPA funds.

"We want to confirm our belief that it's a bipartisan issue to have a clean and safe environment," O'Grady said today. "We want to see if the positions taken by a number of congressional representatives and senators are in concert with their constituents."

O'Grady believes those surveys, combined with some sort of commercial campaign, could be a key tool in convincing members that most of the country is not in favor of drastic reductions at EPA.

One group AFGE hopes to partner with to conduct its surveys is the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"The union has approached us on this issue, and we intend to talk with them more about the effort," NRDC federal communications director Ed Chen said today. "I think saving the EPA is a noble cause. ... Every member of Congress ought to join the effort to save the EPA from extremists."

But despite the reprieve provided by the August recess and this week's debt deal, time may be running short before Congress takes an ax to agency budgets.

A joint congressional committee will soon take up the task of finding $1.5 trillion in additional debt savings, and a target is already being painted squarely on the back of federal employees in that effort.

Even as the debt deal was being passed Tuesday, Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) were rolling out their new "Federal Workforce Reduction and Reform Act of 2011," which would require a 15 percent reduction in the size of the federal workforce over the next 10 years. The bill would also extend the current pay freeze on federal civilian employees by an additional three years, freeze all bonuses and cut the federal government's travel budget by 75 percent.

Pointing to statistics compiled by President Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, Hatch and Coburn estimate those changes would save the government more than $600 billion over 10 years.

"If the recent debate over the debt ceiling has shown anything, it's that we need to make sure the federal government is forced to live within its means, just as small businesses and working families across the country are," Hatch said in a statement when he rolled out the new proposal. "We simply must do more to address our runaway government spending and debt."

The bill has already received significant push back from major federal union groups.

"Those in Congress who are targeting federal workers for cuts will never be satisfied by the cuts they are able to make; they will keep coming back again and again until there is nothing left to take, and the agencies we work for can no longer function," said Randy Erwin, legislative director for the National Federation of Federal Employees, in a statement today. "That is why we must draw a line in the sand and stop the Coburn/Hatch bill."