Senate appropriators on Thursday approved a $41.5 billion spending bill to fund the Interior Department and EPA, setting up a showdown with the House and President Donald Trump.

The bill represents a bipartisan compromise on the agency budgets, a necessity given the need to attract 60 votes on appropriations measures in the Senate. Only Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and John Kennedy (R-La.) voted “no.”

The legislation includes $15.1 billion for the Interior Department. The House bill, in contrast, would appropriate $14.8 billion, a roughly $60 million cut.

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The Senate would give EPA $8.6 billion, a 5 percent cut. The House wants to trim down the agency by nearly a quarter. And the White House wants to slash more.

“We had hard numbers that we needed to get, and we had to balance cuts in areas that are hard, and I think that we did a good job focusing on the priorities of so many when it comes to public lands and EPA,” Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said in an interview.

Even though each chamber is bucking the White House in its own way, the Senate’s bipartisan approach is a major challenge to the White House and is upsetting some conservatives.

Like other Senate fiscal 2026 bills, the Interior-Environment title takes the administration to task, urging it to spend appropriated funds in accordance with direction from Capitol Hill.

“The committee is disappointed with the utter lack of regard for complying with Congressional intent on spending funds as appropriated,” the bill report reads.

Here are four takeaways from the bill:

EPA science shutdown blocked

Senate appropriators are displeased with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and his staff as they rally to rework the agency.

“The Committee is frustrated with how EPA has decided to not have a working relationship with the Committee and to disregard Congressional directives related to staffing and funding,” the bill report said.

Consequently, the panel created a new account, called the Office of the Administrator, and provided it almost $107.9 million, which would fund the administrator’s team as well as the agency’s chief financial office. That is far below the $183.8 million being spent on those operations in fiscal 2025.

The Senate committee said it created the new account out of EPA’s Environmental Programs and Management account to ensure “transparency in funding.”

“Targeted increases” in funding could be forthcoming for those offices if they can “demonstrate that it takes its relationship with the Committee seriously.”

EPA is directed to “expeditiously brief” the panel on its proposed reorganization involving several program offices, which was announced last week. Senators also took aim at the agency’s plans to eliminate its Office of Research and Development.

“The Committee is appalled that the Agency has announced the imminent closure of ORD,” said the bill report, which would result in “the immeasurable risk to our health and environment” by undercutting EPA’s capacity to clean up dangerous chemicals and respond to disasters.

The report notes the agency didn’t include its plan for the science office in its budget request, nor submit it to the committee as required by reprogramming guidance.

Consequently, EPA is ordered “to immediately halt … the closure, reduction, reorganization, or other similar such changes” to ORD and its scientific workforce.

Further, the bill text states the agency “shall maintain staffing levels” at the research office at its fiscal 2021 capacity, including at its scientific centers and all 10 regional laboratories.

“I’d like to think that we don’t actually need provisions requiring that there be enough staff to carry out essential activities,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the subcommittee’s ranking member, at Thursday’s markup. “But at this moment in the national conversation, I think these sorts of provisions are important in this bill.”

Environmental justice given lifeline

EPA is already moving forward with shutting down another office, which was created in 2022 to aid marginalized communities saddled with longstanding pollution.

The agency is scheduled to lay off 271 employees who worked on environmental justice or “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives by Thursday next week.

Zeldin has also pushed to cancel environmental justice grants, which were funded with billions of dollars during the Biden administration.

But Senate appropriators have offered a lifeline to that work at the agency. Included in the bill text is language saying funds for EPA enforcement “may be used for environmental justice implementation and training grants, and associated program support costs.”

The bill report says $40 million will be used for environmental justice activities at the agency, according to committee aides. That is far below the roughly $100 million in enacted spending levels but could keep the program afloat during the Trump administration.

The House Republicans’ spending bill would zero out funding for environmental justice at EPA. On his first day back in office, Trump also signed an executive order demanding agencies terminate their environmental justice offices and positions along with DEI programs.

Interior riders

Murkowski took her pound of flesh in the bill, including riders to accomplish long-sought goals for Alaska and force the Trump administration to roll back a key prerogative.

The Senate bill would force the Interior Department to restore the name “Denali” to the nation’s highest peak, located in Alaska. The Trump administration reverted the mountain’s name via executive order to “Mount McKinley,” despite local support for the Denali moniker that was codified during the Obama administration.

The bill would require all federal references to the mountain to be returned to Denali within 60 days — an affront to the White House’s effort to rename federal lands, waters and structures.

Also included in the committee report is a note that the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 requires the Interior secretary to permit access for the Ambler mining road.

The project was blocked by the Biden administration, citing Indigenous subsistence concerns. That decision prompted an uproar from the Alaska delegation.

The bill also includes a bipartisan rider that would bar the transfer of any national park unit, trail or river from National Park Service control.

The rider is a firm rebuke of the Trump administration’s budget request, which proposed transferring smaller parcels away from NPS control and management.

EV chargers, pipeline safety

The Transportation-HUD bill would increase spending 3 percent relative to the currently enacted level. The bill would provide about $10 billion more than the House version.

Senate appropriators packed the bill report with language supporting Republican and Democratic priorities — from electric vehicle charging infrastructure to pipeline safety programs and streamlined environmental reviews.

The legislation requires the Department of Transportation to issue new draft guidance for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure formula program within 30 days of enactment, and final guidance within 120 days.

That program, created by the 2021 infrastructure law to build out a coast-to-coast network of EV charging stations, has become a favorite target of the Trump administration and some Republicans. DOT froze the program’s grants earlier this year and rescinded program guidance.

The committee directed the Federal Aviation Administration to provide at least $50 million for zero-emission and low-emission projects at airports and to “actively engage” in identifying potential energy efficiency, energy resilience and renewable energy projects.

Funding for pipeline safety and hazardous materials safety programs would stay roughly flat. Appropriators directed at least $5 million toward the creation of a center for expertise for liquefied natural gas safety.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration would be required to consider initiating a rulemaking to minimize leaks and ensure safety around hydrogen infrastructure.

Appropriators noted continuing efforts to improve rail safety following the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and directed PHMSA to take certain actions recommended by the federal investigators in response to the derailment.

The housing section of the bill would maintain funding for lead control and mitigation, and it would encourage a study on ways to better support renters following natural disasters.

One provision would direct HUD to work with other agencies to “improve processes for environmental reviews” with the goal of streamlining permits for new housing.