The House Appropriations Committee’s Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Subcommittee is seeking to rein in spending for the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in fiscal year (FY) 2024, setting up a partisan fight on the House of Representatives floor.
The bill calls for a 39% cut in funding from FY 2023 for EPA to $6.17 billion. It reduces spending for the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s budgets to be reduced by 18% and 13%, respectively.
Additionally, the bill seeks to rein in regulations such as:
• The Biden administration’s Waters of the U.S. regulations.
• Requirements for reporting livestock emissions under the Clean Air Act and reporting greenhouse gas emissions from manure management systems.
• Endangered Species Act regulations, including the listing of the bi-state sage grouse and the prairie chicken, introduction of bison to the Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge in Montana, introduction of grizzly bears in the North Cascades Ecosystem, and reissue of the 2020 rule delisting the gray wolf.
The bill calls for protections for recreational sports and the oil and gas industry, and expands access to critical minerals. It also fully funds wildfire management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Payments in Lieu of Taxes program.
“I will be honest—if you’re looking for a pretty bill, this is not it,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID-03), chairman of the subcommittee, said in the bill’s markup. “This is a hard bill, but frankly, it is a necessary bill. Cutting funding is never easy and can often be an ugly process. But with the national debt in excess of $32 trillion and inflation at an unacceptable level, we must do our jobs to rein in unnecessary federal spending.”
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME-01) said at the bill’s hearing that the bill would cut back the progress made with funding through the Inflation Reduction Act and it virtually eliminates the Greenhouse Gas Reduction fund. Pingree continued the bill goes beyond climate funding and cuts the budget for agencies that garner the support of members on both sides of the aisle. Pingree pointed to the proposed 13% cut in funding for the National Park Service at a time when visitors are at an all-time high. Other Democrats on the committee echoed Pingree’s sentiment about cutting funding for environmental programs that address climate change and clean water and air.
Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK-04) thanked the committee and its members for “trying to address the many years of neglect and broken trusts and treaties” by working on a bipartisan basis to ensure funding for Native American agencies and causes was fully funded.
Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA-04) offered an amendment prohibiting funds from being used to finalize the BLM’s proposed landscape and conservation health rule or any substantially similar rule.
Pingree said the amendment would negate the efforts the BLM has engaged in to date. She added the agency needs to respond to the over 200,000 comments it received during the comment period.
The amendment was approved on a voice vote.
Approval of the bill will require support from all Republican members of the closely divided House. The Freedom Caucus sent a letter to Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-23), expressing their expectation that all appropriations measures align with FY 2022 levels of $1.471 trillion.
“Absent adhering to the $1.471 trillion spending level—and/or achieving significant policy victories such as forcing President Biden to sign H.R. 2 (Secure the Border Act of 2023) and take the steps necessary to secure the border—we see an impossible path to reach 218 Republican votes on appropriations or other measures,” the letter read.
After several hours of debate on amendments to the bill, the motion passed 33-27 to proceed to the House floor for a vote just ahead of the August recess. — Charles Wallace, WLJ contributing editor
