13. Environmental Protection Agency · Notable
Eliminate or consolidate EPA regional laboratories
Printed page 432 13. Environmental Protection Agency
“Eliminate or consolidate the regional laboratories and allow OLEM to use EPA, other government, or private labs based on expertise and cost.”
What has happened
- Partially done
The FY 2026 President's Budget consolidates one regional laboratory: EPA "is vacating its Houston regional laboratory and consolidating into the Ada, OK, facility for a rent savings of $2.2 million and space reduction of 41,126 square feet". No other regional laboratory was eliminated or consolidated — EPA's own laboratories page still lists all ten regional laboratories as of 2026-07-10, the Office of Research and Development is still their National Program Manager, and the CJ says regional laboratory science "will continue to provide cutting-edge science". Nothing gives OLEM a free choice among EPA, other government and private labs.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Partial on a single consolidation: the test is whether a piece was delivered, and one regional laboratory being vacated and merged into another EPA facility is a piece.
- Federal Register API: a search for “regional laboratories” in EPA documents from 2025-01-20 returned none. The laboratory record is in the budget documents, not the Federal Register.
- Related: #1164 asks for an announced plan to streamline the laboratory structure and is partial on the same documents; this item asks for elimination or consolidation of the labs themselves.
- Action
- eliminate
- Object
- EPA regional laboratories
- ID
- 1135