WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency has issued new guidance directing that spending items greater than $50,000 now require approval from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The guidance, issued this week, escalates the role that the new efficiency group, known as DOGE, plays in EPA operations.
“Any assistance agreement, contract or interagency agreement transaction (valued at) $50,000 or greater must receive approval from an EPA DOGE team member,″ the EPA guidance says, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
To facilitate the DOGE team review, EPA staff members have been directed to submit a brief, one-page explanation of each funding action each day between 3 and 6 p.m. Eastern time, the guidance says. Other relevant forms also must be completed.
President Donald Trump has tasked DOGE with digging up what he and Musk call waste, fraud and abuse. The Republican president suggested Thursday that Cabinet members and agency leaders would take the lead on spending and staffing cuts, but he said Musk could push harder down the line.
“If they can cut, it’s better,” Trump said of agency leaders. “And if they don’t cut, then Elon will do the cutting.”
The EPA did not respond to a request Friday for comment.
Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, called the new directive “troubling,” adding that it means agency actions, including routine contracts and grant awards, “now face unnecessary bureaucratic delays.”
Routine expenditures such as small-scale grants for air and water quality monitoring, laboratory equipment purchases, hazardous waste disposal at federal sites and money for municipal recycling programs are among spending that will probably be affected, he said.
Whitehouse, an outspoken critic of Musk and Trump, said the involvement of Musk’s “unvetted, inexperienced team raises serious concerns about improper external influence on specialized agency decision-making.”
In a letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, Whitehouse said spending actions greater than $50,000 are often complex and require specialized knowledge of environmental science, policy and regulations. “Allowing unskilled, self-proclaimed ‘experts,’ not vetted for conflicts of interest, to have veto power over funding determinations is inappropriate and risks compromising the agency’s mission to protect public health and the environment,” Whitehouse wrote.
An EPA directive says the new guidance is intended to comply with executive orders issued by Trump that seek to restrict federal spending.
Whitehouse called those orders illegal, adding: “It is already established by court order that it is Congress that authorizes and appropriates funds for specific purposes, not the (White House) Office of Management and Budget or the president via executive order or DOGE.”
The dispute over the spending guidelines comes as Zeldin has pledged sharp spending cuts as high as 65% at the agency.
“We don’t need to be spending all that money that went through the EPA last year,” Zeldin said last week. “We don’t want it. We don’t need it. The American public needs it and we need to balance the budget.”
President Joe Biden requested about $10.9 billion for the EPA in the current budget year, an increase of 8.5% over the previous one, but Zeldin said the agency needs far less money to do its work. He also criticized EPA grants authorized under the 2022 climate law, including $20 billion for a so-called green bank to pay for climate and clean-energy programs.
Zeldin has vowed to revoke contracts for the still-emerging bank program that is set to fund tens of thousands of projects to fight climate change and promote environmental justice.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said last week that Trump, DOGE and Zeldin are all “committed to cutting waste, fraud, and abuse.”
A 65% reduction in spending would be devastating to the EPA and its mission, said Marie Owens Powell, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Council 238. Core actions such as monitoring air and water quality, responding to natural disasters and lead abatement, among other agency functions, are at risk, she said.
