Just 41 percent of the billions of dollars in EPA funding included in former President Joe Biden’s infrastructure law had been spent as of January, the agency’s independent watchdog said Thursday.
The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act appropriated $60.9 billion to EPA over four years. A significant proportion of those funds were set aside to help local governments and utilities build water and sewer projects and remove harmful pollutants from drinking water.
But while the final appropriations tied to the law will expire at the end of September, EPA has more work to do in directing the money toward specific projects, the EPA Office of Inspector General said in a new report. As of Jan. 31, the agency had obligated $39.8 billion in infrastructure law funds, with $16.3 billion spent thus far, the OIG said.
“Significant portions of available funding have yet to be committed to projects, leaving necessary infrastructure projects unfunded,” Kim Wheeler, a spokesperson for the office, said in an emailed statement.
