Project 2025 Tracker / What’s done, what’s next

13. Environmental Protection Agency · Notable · Needs Congress

Reject appropriations for unauthorized EPA programs like IRIS

Not started

439 13. Environmental Protection Agency

“Reject funds for programs that have not been authorized by Congress (like IRIS) as well as peer review activities that have not been authorized by Congress.”

What has happened

  1. Not started

    Congress kept funding the program. The FY2026 Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, enacted 2026-01-23, appropriates $744,195,000 for EPA Science and Technology — the account IRIS is paid from — with no rider withholding funds from unauthorized programs and no mention of IRIS. Nor did the administration ask it to: EPA's FY2026 Congressional Justification, read in full, contains no reference to IRIS and names no program as unauthorized, so there is no formal administration request of the kind playbook §3b treats as `attempted`. The argument the Quote makes does appear in the budget request in general terms, and EPA dissolved the Office of Research and Development into the program offices (#1165), but IRIS is still publishing.

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

  • Queries: the text of EPA’s FY2026 Congressional Justification (28,159 lines) searched for “IRIS”, “Integrated Risk Information”, “unauthorized” and “not been authorized” — no hit relevant to the ask; the “unauthorized” hits are about computer networks and unauthorized state RCRA programs.
  • The text of Public Law 119-74 (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-119publ74/html/PLAW-119publ74.htm) searched for “IRIS”, “Integrated Risk Information”, “Science Advisory Board” and “peer review” — nothing.
  • A search of the bill titles we keep and search for “Integrated Risk Information” or “IRIS” finds the No IRIS Act (H.R. 1415, S. 623), introduced only; that bill is the elimination ask at #1165, not the appropriations ask here.
  • Evidence is attached to the not started event: the record shows Congress moving the other way, and the page should show that rather than a bare stamp.
Action
eliminate
Object
funding for unauthorized EPA programs including IRIS
ID
1175