The Republican-led House on Friday approved another 2024 appropriations bill, passing legislation that would slash the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by nearly 40%.
The funding bill covering the Department of Interior, Environment and Related Agencies passed by a 213-203 vote that fell almost entirely along party lines. Three Republicans — Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mike Lawler and Marc Molinaro of New York — voted against it, while Democrat Vicente Gonzalez of Texas voted for it.
The GOP plan would provide 35% less in total funding than in fiscal 2023 and reportedly would provide the Environmental Protection Agency with its smallest budget in three decades, about $6.2 billion. It would cut 39%, or nearly $4 billion, from the EPA’s 2023 funding and would provide nearly $6 billion less for the agency than President Joe Biden requested in his budget.
“In addition to the top-line EPA cuts, the GOP bill would also rescind provisions from the climate, tax and health care bill that Democrats passed last year,” The Hill notes. “It targets funding aimed at helping underserved communities combat climate change and pollution. It additionally seeks to defund the EPA’s efforts to curtail toxic pollution and planet-warming emissions, preventing the agency from using funding to enforce its rules on power plants.”
The bill would also deliver $14.3 billion for the Interior Department, reducing its funding by $677 million, or 4.5%. It would cut the National Park Service funding by $436 million, or 13%, among other provisions.
Republican amendments seeking to slash the salaries of officials including Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning all to $1 fell far short of being adopted.
Why it matters: Republicans touted the potential EPA cuts as a step toward fiscal responsibility and a blow against what they described as the Biden administration’s “extreme anti-energy policies” and costly regulatory overreach. “Cutting funding is never easy or pretty, but with the national debt in excess of $33 trillion and inflation at an unacceptable level, we had to make tough choices to rein in federal spending,” said Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, who heads the Appropriations subcommittee responsible for the legislation.
The House GOP’s proposed cuts have little chance of becoming law, though they set a marker for likely negotiations with the Democratic-led Senate, where a plan with bipartisan support calls for $42.7 billion in total funding, compared with $25.4 billion in the House package.
House lawmakers fended off pressure from hardliners to pursue even steeper cuts, but Democrats slammed the existing plan as austere and irresponsible. “This harmful bill debilitates America’s ability to address the climate crisis and hobbles the agencies within its jurisdiction,” said Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, the top Democrat on the Interior-Environment subcommittee.
The White House has threatened to veto the House bill.
The bottom line: The GOP cuts are unlikely to be enacted, but in addition to their political messaging they also signal just how much work is left to be done in the annual appropriations process. The House has now passed seven of 12 required appropriations bills, while the Senate has approved three, though the spending bills there have been moving with bipartisan support and largely reflect spending levels agreed upon by both parties earlier this year. Lawmakers will have to approve a stopgap spending bill by November 17 to avoid a government shutdown.
