Capitol Hill Update – August 2025

Capitol Hill Update

The President’s FY 2026 Budget proposed to eliminate State Indoor Radon Grants (SIRG) indicating that” responsibility for funding local indoor radon reduction programs is best placed with states and localities.”  The House and Senate appropriations bills for FY26, which have been passed by the respective chambers’ full appropriations committees, both propose to fund SIRG at a level comparable to this year.

The President’s FY 2026 Budget proposed to eliminate the Indoor Air: Radon Program, claiming that “all applicable statutory work (e.g., Toxic Substances Control Act, Clean Air Act, etc.) will be accomplished in other programs within the Indoor Air and Radiation Program Area.” There is no evidence that other radiation programs have the capacity to lead the Radon Program, and it’s unlikely to happen with the President’s proposed 49% cut – or the House bill’s 49% cut. The Senate has almost level-funded it.  Neither the House nor Senate appropriations bill mention the Radon Program.

The House and Senate have recessed until September. 

Please reach out to your Senators and House member’s office or visit them at the local office or a local event during August, and ask that they ensure that the EPA Indoor Air: Radon Program and SIRG programs are fully funded through the Interior-Environments Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2026.
Look up your Senators and House member here.

Talking Points for Your Meetings with Your Representative and Senators

To help save lives and protect the health of all Americans, I ask that you continue and maintain full funding for EPA’s Radon Program and the State Indoor Radon Grant program in the Interior-Environments Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2026.

As you may know, radon gas is a radioactive toxin that kills 21,000 people in the U.S.  each year– 55 Americans each day. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, a disease that kills more men and women than any other cancer, including breast and prostate.  Radon is invisible, and present in more and more homes across the nation. 

In 1988, President Reagan signed the Indoor Radon Abatement Act, which directed the EPA to reduce radon levels so “that the air within buildings in the United States should be as free of radon as the ambient air outside of buildings.” Congress had passed that law in recognition of this serious health threat.  EPA’s radon programs serve as the federal government’s primary line of defense for U.S. families against exposure to this pervasive carcinogen in fulfillment of this statutory duty. Section III of the Toxic Substances Control Act required EPA leadership on grants to states, proficiency, training, technical assistance, protocols/standards, and science.

EPA’s Indoor Air: Radon Program is a critical force in equipping the radon industry and public health programs with the technical and information tools they need to reduce radon exposure in homes, schools, and other buildings.  EPA’s Radon Program delivers radon standards and policies, including a radon reference, that ensure that all concerned with radon risk reduction are working according to proven evidence-based practices and policies. Fewer than half of all states license or in any way oversee the performance of radon services, and all but a few states rely heavily on the public-private partnership that EPA has forged with private companies and voluntary proficiency programs.  The loss of the Radon Program would wipe out recent progress and reset the clock to before 1988. 

EPA’s State Indoor Radon Grants enable state health departments, tribes, and others to implement radon programs best suited to their respective communities. These programs’ radon risk reduction efforts are significant. Forty-five State radon programs and up to twelve tribal programs have relied on and continue to rely on SIRG to support radon awareness and education of our citizens. These radon programs have much work to do and no alternative source of support for their work. Without federal grants, these programs will disappear, even as the housing stock continues to grow, and more homes are added without radon-reducing features.  These are not responsibilities that EPA can, or should, hand off to the states and tribes. Grantees provide match funds but lack enough funding to conduct radon risk reduction alone.

The combined effect of eliminating these programs would subject the American public to much harm, including a lack of public information and resources; increased exposure to a radioactive gas; and increased exposure for consumers to fraudulent practices due to no federal agency providing objective leadership on radioactive measurement devices and forms of remediation for radon.  As a result, more people will die from lung cancer caused by radon.

Please support full funding for the Radon Program and the State Indoor Radon Grant programs in the Interior-Environments Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2026. Such action will affirm continued progress toward fulfilling the goal that indoor air should be as free of radon as outdoor air. Such action will help protect the lives and health of all.