An automatic trillion-dollar spending cut set to take effect at the end of this year would result in cuts between 7.6 and 8.2 percent to most functions within U.S. EPA; the departments of Energy, Interior and Agriculture; and other agencies, the White House said in a report released today.

The nearly 400-page report, which the Office of Management and Budget prepared in response to a law enacted this summer, details the effect of the "sequester" that lawmakers and the White House agreed to as part of last year's deal to raise the debt ceiling. The automatic spending cuts were triggered by the failure of the deficit reduction "supercommittee" to agree on a long-term budget deal last year, and they will take effect Jan. 2 unless Congress changes the law.

Environmental and food-safety rules are among those whose implementation would suffer if the sequester took effect, according to the OMB report.

"The Department of Agriculture's efforts to inspect food processing plants and prevent foodborne illnesses would be curtailed," the report says. "The Environmental Protection Agency's ability to protect the water we drink and the air we breathe would be degraded."

A senior administration official said President Obama would like to avoid the sequester by working with Congress to enact an alternative deficit-reduction package "that involves both revenue increases and further spending cuts."

Congressional Republicans have balked at the suggestion of raising taxes, and the GOP-controlled House has passed its own legislation that focuses on undoing cuts to defense spending that would take effect under the sequester. Democrats, meanwhile, have raised alarms over how the $1.2 trillion mandatory spending cuts over the next decade will affect priorities at agencies like EPA and DOE.

With the House planning to leave town after next week until after the elections, the issue is likely to be high on the agenda for a year-end lame-duck session.

Across-the-board cuts

Under the blunt instrument of the sequester, nondefense agencies would see the same portion of their budgets cut, except where such cuts are exempt by law. Nondefense discretionary spending would fall 8.2 percent, while mandatory spending would fall 7.6 percent, according to the report.

The sequester is split between defense and nondefense spending. For next year, nondefense spending will be cut $54.7 billion, according to the report.

At EPA, most accounts will be subject to the 8.2 percent discretionary cut, aside from a portion of mandatory Superfund spending. The agency's popular State and Tribal Assistance Grants would lose $293 million, and its science and technology office, which serves many functions in establishing the foundation of regulations, would see its budget trimmed by $65 million.

At DOE, some offices, such as the National Nuclear Security Administration, would be subject to a higher 9.4 percent cut that the sequester applies to discretionary defense spending.

Most of DOE's core functions would lose 8.2 percent funding from nonexempt accounts. Among others, the Title 17 loan guarantee program would be cut $3 million, fossil energy research and development would lose $44 million, and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy would lose $148 million, the report says.

Environmentalists were quick to point out cuts to Interior programs aimed at protecting lands and wildlife. The National Park Service would lose $183 million, while the Fish and Wildlife Service would lose $105 million.

"These cuts are bad for everyone -- watersheds will be put at risk in our nation's forests, parks will have fewer rangers and police, and endangered species will be left to fend for themselves," said Alan Rowsome, director of conservation funding for the Wilderness Society. "The federal budget can't be balanced on the backs of conservation programs."