In early June the House Appropriations Committee gave a green light to the 2019 Interior and Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, but not without opposition. The funding measure passed on a Republican-led party line vote of 25-20.
In total, the bill provides $35.25 billion, equal to the fiscal year 2018 enacted level. These funds are targeted to programs that support and protect the nation’s natural resources, including $3.9 billion for the Department of the Interior (DOI) and U.S. Forest Service to prevent and combat devastating wildfires. The committee said in a press release that the legislation also contains several policy provisions to rein in harmful and unnecessary regulations at the EPA and other agencies.
House Appropriations Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ 11) commented, “The bill ensures that funding is targeted to maintaining the health and safety of our public lands–including the protection from and the fighting of devastating wildfires—and will help protect vital national resources for generations to come.”
Amendments of interest to livestock producers and land managers include Endangered Species Act (ESA) provisions regarding grizzly bears and gray wolves. These provisions caused the Center for Biological Diversity to rise in opposition with Brett Hartl, government affairs director, saying, “Republicans’ constant meddling in both the science and law are putting our nation’s most imperiled wildlife in the crosshairs. These insidious attacks have no place in funding legislation and undermine the Endangered Species Act, which has saved 99 percent of species in its care from extinction.”
Language concerning wolves would eventually remove all gray wolves in the lower 48 states from the ESA list. Red wolves and Mexican gray wolves would not be included in this delisting language.
Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA-4) took the lead on an amendment to deny funding for the DOI’s proposal to transport grizzly bears in the North Cascades region of his home state.
Additionally, an amendment offered by Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT-2) would allow the DOI to use sterilization in the management of wild horses and burros.
Ethan Lane, Public Lands Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Federal Lands executive director, commented on the wild horse provisions, saying it stops short of providing the full suite of tools—including humane euthanasia—that are advocated by most responsible stakeholders. He told WLJ, “The expanded ability to gather and sterilize does represent progress.”
Lane went on to say the tools provided may not be helpful to the Bureau of Land Management without some prohibitions on the use of litigation by activist groups to block management efforts.
Further action by the full House of Representatives is pending.
On June 12, the Senate Subcommittee on Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies approved a $35.853 billion measure to fund the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Forest Service, Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and other agencies. That bill was scheduled to be considered by the full Senate Committee on Appropriations on June 14.
While there are similarities in the House and Senate bills, Lane said the Senate bill is much less beneficial, largely because new Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) is insisting on a fully bipartisan process. “Any language to complement the House version will need to be debated and passed in the upcoming full committee markup,” Lane told WLJ.
With much work remaining to bring all sides together, Lane said, “We don’t expect a finished product anytime soon.” — Rae Price, WLJ editor
