House and Senate appropriations committees have approved spending bills to fund the Environmental Protection Agency for fiscal year 2016 that make deep cuts into EPA's water infrastructure program. The bills, which the committees cleared along party lines, also include controversial environmental policy riders that are expected to draw presidential vetoes.

The Senate appropriations measure trims combined funding for EPA's clean-water and drinking-water state revolving funds (SRFs) by 23%, to $1.8 billion, from this year's level. The House bill includes similar numbers: $1 billion for the clean-water SRF and $757 million for the drinking-water fund.