Fred Krupp is president of the Environmental Defense Fund, a non-profit organization. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.

(CNN) With time running out for Congress to reach an agreement on the budget, lawmakers are advancing a quiet but crippling assault on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has already suffered years of hollowing out from budget cuts. At stake is the EPA's fundamental ability to carry out its most basic public health and environmental missions. Without full funding for the agency, the health of our children, our seniors and our communities are at risk.

Fred Krupp

Congress, which has traditionally provided bipartisan support for environmental safeguards that protect constituents, is falling out of step with public support for a fully capable EPA. In September, the House of Representatives voted to cut the EPA budget by $528 million in 2018 , less radical than Trump's proposal but deeply damaging. And just days before Thanksgiving, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee hustled through cuts of his own, choosing to "release" the chairman's recommendation, without so much as a public hearing.

This kind of secrecy is not surprising when you consider what is being proposed. Remarkably, the Senate proposal would eliminate EPA's Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program , which provides foundational assessments of chemical toxicity needed to protect American families. And it would cut "green chemistry" research designed to produce safer chemicals while improving the safety of production and disposal of chemicals.

Congress is also proposing major cuts to EPA's enforcement budget, making it harder to hold polluters accountable when they use hazardous pesticides inside nursing homes, release dangerous chemicals into the air, dump oil and hazardous waste into the ocean and sludge into storm drains. The EPA already has about 50 fewer criminal investigators than the 200 required by law. Further cuts would send the wrong message to polluters who flout the law—and be a slap in the face to the majority of businesses who work hard to deal properly with hazardous materials.