Democratic House appropriators are up in arms over the subcommittee draft of the House Interior and Related Agency’s funding bill, which cuts funding for the Environmental Protection Agency and includes several policy riders. “There are serious shortcomings throughout this bill,” Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) said during Wednesday’s subcommittee markup. “Once again the EPA is significantly underfunded. The bill would cut $164 million from already inadequate funding levels and decimate the EPA’s operating budget.”
The subcommittee draft funds the EPA at $7.98 billion, nearly $300 million less than the administration’s requested $8.267 billion and $164 million less than the agency’s $8.139 billion fiscal year 2016 budget. Within this total, the EPA’s regulatory programs are reduced by $43 million
The EPA’s fiscal 2017 budget request includes roughly $235 million to support the administration’s climate agenda. Within that total, approximately $50.5 million is earmarked for state Clean Power Plan action plan development. A breakdown of the funding in the subcommittee draft will be made available prior to the full committee market, which is yet to be scheduled.
Funding levels aside, the bill also contains many policy provisions, deemed “poison pills” by the subcommittee Democrats. Riders include a prohibition on the EPA from implementing its greenhouse gas regulations for new and existing coal-fired power plants. The EPA’s Clean Power Plan, carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants are currently on hold, due to a Supreme Court-ordered stay of the rule, halting implementation pending legal review, which is unlikely to conclude before the end of FY17.
Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) praised the Clean Power Plan rider. “Until we see relief from the onslaught of regulations coming out of this administration, we will continue to see jobs eliminated in [the coal] sector. Accordingly, I am pleased to see that the subcommittee has included several provisions that will protect our constituents from bureaucratic overreach and reverse the devastating impact that these anti-coal policies are having on jobs and the economy,” Rogers said.
The other side of the aisle was less impressed with the riders, saying that they would derail the appropriations process. “Neither Democrats in Congress nor President Obama will agree to poison pill riders that cause harm to our environment and public health. These riders put the appropriations process at risk,” Lowey said.