Funding Bill With Deep Cuts To EPA Passes House Committee

A funding bill with deep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and agencies within the Interior Department has made it past a key House committee. The legislation, which was passed by the House Appropriations Committee on June 3, slashes total funding for the EPA by 20 percent and reduces its enforcement budget by $169 million, or nearly half compared to last year’s funding levels.

The bill includes many anti-wildlife riders that would undermine the Endangered Species Act, including blocking protections for several endangered species.

“It’s a disgrace that House Republicans want to dismantle decades of environmental progress and hand polluters unprecedented power over the health of our communities, public lands and wildlife,” said Stephanie Kurose, deputy director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This morally bankrupt bill will only lead to dirtier air, more toxic water, and countless species shoved over the extinction cliff.”

The bill would also cut the EPA’s overall budget by 5 percent and its listing budget by $7 million compared to last year’s levels, which were already the lowest since 2004. The listing program is in charge of determining which animals and plants deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act. The EPA is currently facing a backlog of more than 400 species awaiting consideration for protection, according to the Center.

“[The EPA] has already lost one-fifth of its workforce since President Trump took office,” said Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, during the Appropriations Committee's markup of the bill. “The cuts in this bill would completely cripple EPA’s ability to fight climate change, respond to environmental disasters, and hold polluters accountable.”

The legislation contains at least 21 harmful riders that would remove protections for dozens of animals already at risk. These riders include:

• Blocking protections for the greater sage-grouse, lesser prairie chicken, northern long-eared bat, and seven freshwater mussels in Texas.
• Weakening habitat protections for northern spotted owls and Canada lynx.
• Blocking reintroduction of grizzlies in the North Cascades and Bitterroot ecosystems.
• Prohibiting any federal agency from banning or restricting lead in ammunition or fishing gear.
• Blocking revisions to harmful Endangered Species Act regulations put in place during the previous administration.
• Codifying climate denialism into law by exempting federal land management agencies from updating their plans when new information shows endangered species are being harmed or killed on public lands.
• Resurrecting Florida’s wetland-destruction permitting program that harms wildlife across the state, including Florida panthers and frosted flatwoods salamanders.

“These riders would cause irreparable harm by undoing decades of progress to stabilize and recover some of our most iconic species,” wrote 80 conservation groups in  a letter urging the House to reject the bill. “They are also completely out of step with the American public, which overwhelmingly supports the Act and the protections it provides.”

“As we face an accelerating and unprecedented wildlife extinction crisis, now more than ever we need Congress to uphold our environmental laws and protect our nation’s most vulnerable animals and plants,” states the letter.