The House passed the Interior and Environment appropriations bill Friday, advancing the seventh appropriations bill out of the lower chamber.
But the measure’s lower-than-agreed-upon funding levels and controversial riders earned a veto threat from the White House earlier this week, foreshadowing a tense spending battle ahead of several funding deadlines.
Approved in a 213-206 vote, the $34.8 billion bill – which funds the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, and a number of related agencies – stands 10% below funding levels for the 2023 fiscal year and operates below 2018’s, while setting discretionary levels below those previously agreed to by the White House and House Republicans. To enact these allocations, the bill reduces funding for the EPA to 1991 levels, rescinds billions for programs within the Inflation Reduction Act, and cuts hundreds of millions from the Department of Interior.
“Cutting funding is never easy or pretty,” Appropriations subcommittee chair Mike Simpson (R-ID) said during floor remarks on Thursday. “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.”
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Democrats, however, were furious at the all-across-the-board cuts to the departments, arguing the bill knee-caps agencies and inhibits the government's ability to fight climate change.
“This harmful bill debilitates America’s ability to address the climate crisis and hobbles the agencies within its jurisdiction,” said subcommittee ranking member Chellie Pingree (D-ME).
Notably, the bill makes a 39% funding cut to the EPA, and makes a $9.4 billion cut to the Inflation Reduction Act – rescinding $7.8 billion from the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a grant program that funds local governments and communities’ plans to reduce emissions. House Republicans also revoked $1.4 billion that was allocated toward environment and climate justice funded in the sweeping climate bill.
The measure has a number of policy riders that were swept into the spending bill, including a provision that would repeal the Biden administration’s Waters of the United States regulation, revoke protections for certain species under the Endangered Species Act, and would prohibit the EPA from enacting a number of regulations relating to greenhouse gas emissions.
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The House spent Thursday and Friday debating amendments, with over 90 amendments adopted either by voice or recorded vote.
Earlier this week, the White House threatened to veto the appropriations bill, opposing the funding levels set forth for the various agencies and pushing back on the bill’s conservative policy riders.
“House Republicans had an opportunity to engage in a productive, bipartisan appropriations process, but instead are wasting time with partisan bills that cut domestic spending to levels well below the FRA agreement and endanger critical services for the American people,” the White House wrote in a statement of administrative policy. “These levels would result in deep cuts to clean energy programs and other programs that work to combat climate change, essential nutrition services, law enforcement, consumer safety, education, and healthcare.”
The passage of the seventh appropriations bill in the House foreshadows a likely tense fight between both parties on government funding, ahead of a Nov. 17 funding deadline. While the lower chamber was able to pass six bills, the upper chamber was able to pass only three through a “minibus” earlier this week. The Senate has not passed its Interior and Environment appropriations bill through the full chamber, but was able to pass the bill through committee in July.