House Approves Funding Bill Slashing EPA Budget 40%
House sends Interior-EPA bill off in the first phase of budget negotiations that, hopefully, will begin to rein in the agency.
We have often reported on the power-grabbing, scare-mongering antics of the Environmental Protection Agency. Whenever called upon to address a true environmental crisis, the group usually finds a way to worsen the situation and increase the expense and extent of the response (e.g., Animas River, East Palestine).
Now, the House of Representatives, under the leadership of its new Speaker, Mike Johnson, has actually taken a serious step toward reining in the EPA: It has approved a funding bill slashing the agency’s budget by 40%.
The House passed a sweeping appropriations bill Friday morning that would substantially slash the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget and ensure that the Department of the Interior (DOI) expands energy and mineral production on public lands.
In a 213-203 vote Friday, the House approved the Fiscal Year 2024 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, a standalone bill to fund the DOI, its subagencies, the EPA and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The White House threatened this week to veto the legislation — which just one Democrat, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, voted for — and said Republicans were “wasting time” with it.
“I am pleased to see the House pass my Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, and I thank my colleagues for their support of this fiscally responsible legislation,” said Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, the chairman of the House Appropriation Committee’s Interior and Environment Subcommittee.
And while this may be a starting point in negotiations, it is a hopeful sign that Congress wants to smother the EPA’s efforts to snuff out the use of fossil fuels.
The massive funding cut proposed by the GOP has virtually no chance of becoming law in this year’s budget but marks a starting point in negotiations for Republicans as they look to negotiate with Democrats in the Senate on funding the government.
The bill is one of 12 annual government funding bills Republicans hoped to have passed by a Nov. 17 deadline to prevent a shutdown. However, Republicans face a challenge in staying unified on spending as they look to approve the remaining five bills in the tight window.
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. 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.
While the House proposal is a great start, unfortunately, the US Senate is less likely to embrace the cost-reducing, government-power-throttling goodness.
After House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) crossed the Capitol to meet with Senate Republicans for the first time over lunch Wednesday, senators poured out of the gathering with a pep-rally-like enthusiasm, promising to back the new speaker as he takes his first steps.
But his pitch to aggressively pursue spending cuts and to decouple Israel and Ukraine aid have already divided the party across both chambers in ways that could make it difficult — if not impossible — to address critical issues like defending democracies abroad and keeping the federal government open.
The speaker’s opening moves have set him on a collision course with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), as both Republican leaders simultaneously struggle to manage their own fractious conferences. An ideological conservative who has staunchly sided with former president Donald Trump after both were elected to national office in 2016, Johnson’s brand of conservatism largely aligns with the right-most wing budding in the Senate Republican conference that McConnell has often clashed with.
McConnell — an 81-year-old Republican of a different political generation than Johnson, 51, with a reputation for fiercely pursuing party goals — has in recent years broken with orthodoxy and sided with President Biden and the Senate Democratic majority on key domestic and international priorities.
I will conclude that this is the first good news I have to report in a long time related to the EPA. Let’s hope this is a sign of things to come.
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Comments
That “slashing” is about 60% short…
60% short. And, for only one agency. How about reviewing all of the agencies that have some about over the decades and see if there is even a Constitutional basis for their existence in the first place. Dept. of Ed, Dept. of Energy, Corporation for Public Broadcasting…
GG, I’ve been saying exactly that for decades.
I see our peerless leader is giving $16 billion of money confiscated from everyone so three eastern cities get improved train service.
It’s either that or pay for the cabs.
On a straight reading of the Constitution fedgov is at most 5% of its present size.
I’ll know we’re making progress when 000s of statutes, along with the funding, are repealed.
Agreed, and unfortunately, it is unlikely to actually happen.
Is this one of those fake cuts where the cut the increase on spending, or an actual cut?
The Hill is reporting that the EPA is facing its smallest budget in decades, so maybe it’s the real deal
Any step towards reducing the budget and reach of unelected bureaucrats is welcome. It’s a start.
Numerous new jobs reports shows almost all the gains in employment sector are government jobs . Thus anything to reduce government spending is good.
“… Republicans face a challenge in staying unified on spending …”
And therein lies the primary obstacle to correcting some of the lunacy of the recent past. Will somebody please tell the Republicans to get out of their own way?
.
It’s not Republicans in their own way so much as DC establishment in the way. This is what the Jan Speaker selection delay and maneuvering was about. It’s what the motion to vacate and the eventual selection of Johnson as Speaker was about.
It’s a start, %99 would be better
Abolishing the entire apartment would be the correct thing to do, since there’s no constitutional basis for it in the first place
Always interesting how policy disagreement is framed. Here we have the GoP majority HoR passing out another of the 12 appropriations bills in regular order. One would be hard pressed to find legitimate grievances in reductions in the Federal budget and in particular the EPA within the base of GoP voters or in the campaign stump speeches of GoP Senators.
It’s well past time that the DC establishment is reminded that their ‘it won’t pass the Senate’ routine can equally apply to the HoR. For that matter the same can be said for WH threats to veto. If the DC establishment is truly most concerned with avoiding a ‘shutdown’ and that’s their overriding priority they will accept the HoR appropriations bills. Of course that’s not the real priority, the actual priority is doing what the lobbyists want alongside doing whatever keeps them on the invitation list of ‘permanent DC’ and out of the line of fire of legacy media.
Never having been in “backroom” discussions or actually read transcripts of them, I can imagine they go something like this;
If this is a must pass bill:
Who will not under any circumstance vote yes? Once that is known, determine who of the no votes is most vulnerable, if that person(s) is in good standing with leadership, put in the necessary protection for that person by negotiating with the flexible no votes.
Once the bill passes and moves to the Senate the process is repeated. Those that listen to their constituents (fewer and fewer nowadays), will quickly figure out that leadership has different priorities and the number of yes votes will be negotiated so that the bill fails by maybe a single vote, thus sending it to reconciliation where the uniparty will exert the power of the swamp and change the bill to whatever it decides is best for all of our elected representatives.
Thus, we don’t get any real cuts, favored departments get a reduction of the amount they really wanted yet still an increase from the previous year.
All of our “elite” get to go back to their constituency and show us that they did what they told us they would do and the other guy screwed it up for the Country.
I agreed with Tucker Carlson that Johnson’s first move upon becoming speaker — dealing with Israel – offended me. But on the whole, he shows great promise.
Certainly more than McCarthy would ever dream of, except when lying to get votes to become speaker.
I rarely disagree with Tucker but war abroad with American hostages and dead should be a very high priority
We have American dead here, from illegal aliens. Dead, crippled, raped, kidnapped, tortured, mutilated.
“Now, the House of Representatives, under the leadership of its new Speaker, Mike Johnson, has actually taken a serious step toward reigning in the EPA…”
Reining.
Perhaps, “reining in the reign of the permanent bureaucracy” would be one way to put it.
Though I wouldn’t mind seeing brimstone being rained down upon them.
Corrected…but, in my defense, I am going to claim “Freudian slip”.
I never knew Freud was a cross-dresser…
(exit, stage left, in a mild panic…)
Johnson will spend more time fighting McConnell than Schumer.
Sad, but true.
Here’s the way these things usually work:
After negotiating with the Senate, the number will change from -40 to +20. The Republicans will declare victory and fundraise off of it for years to come.
The Democrats will scream about the horror of the cut the Republicans demanded and also fundraise off of it for years.
Everyone in Washington will be happy.
Or: next step in the dance is the Washington Monument Ploy. EPA will continue to fund their harassment and meddling activities, while cutting the budgets of essential public-oriented services like approval of industry leases and processing FOIA requests.
A bill? If it fails in the Senate then the EPA gets its money.
Why not do it where it counts: get rid of the continuing resolution and go back to appropriations. Then cut the 40% from the EPA budget in a line item within the entire federal budget. If the Senate doesn’t like it, all it can do is reject the WHOLE budget and then House can sit back and wait. But then nothing scares Republicans more than the media accusing them of shutting down the government.
What would be *really* nice is if Speaker Johnson got all 12 budget bills passed in regular order and sent to the Senate for the first time in forever, preferably based on the pre-Covid budgets instead of just layering the ‘normal’ yearly increase over last years lard. ‘Return to regular order’ would be a nice slogan.
“ preferably based on the pre-Covid budgets instead of just layering the ‘normal’ yearly increase over last years lard.”
We can all dream, but my dreams goes back to pre-Obama quantitive easing budget busting time frame. The years that the continuing resolution added those ridiculous numbers are the “trillions” on steroids.
Of course, Congress loves continuing resolutions because they require essentially no work.
Let’s do DOJ next and slash 80%!!
It’s a step in the right direction!
However, Leslie,
…[Johnson’s] pitch to aggressively pursue spending cuts and to decouple Israel and Ukraine aid have already divided the party across both chambers in ways that could make it difficult — if not impossible — to address critical issues like defending democracies abroad and keeping the federal government open.
How about concentrating on cleaning up the messes in the USA instead?
And, “keeping the federal government open” sounds like DC-speak for “keep the gravy train rolling, and damn the torpedoes.” Sorry about the mixed metaphor.
Biden green new deal is trillion dollar fraud.
Dismantle the EPA.
You’re joking, right?
1. The House passes a spending bill with significant cuts to the EPA budget
2. The people rejoice, “YAY”!!
3. The Senate refuses to pass bill w/the significant budget cuts to EPA
4. The people are sad, “BOO”!
5. The Congress gets close to the cut-off deadline for the most recent CSR
6. Congressional panic ensues. “AHHHHHH”!!!
7. Congress passes another backroom CSR deal to keep spending going at current levels w/out EPA cuts
7a. Republicans howl in faux outrage
8. Administrative Branch spending continues apace without any real review or change.
Lather, rinse, repeat and spending is never cut.
And if you think it won’t happen. Think again. There is a real reason why Congress hasn’t really reviewed government spending and produced a real, honest to goodness, current federal budget. Because if they did then they’d have to seriously cut spending to bring it in line with what they’re actually bringing in as income. And nobody in Congress is willing to do that. Too much pork barrel spending would have to be cut. And that’s just not gonna happen.
Yeah pretty accurate. The silver lining is that eventually this crap will end. Either Congress and the WH will stop borrowing so much:
1. Due to grown ups finally asserting themselves and forcing less spending and thus less borrowing
OR
2. Inability to find someone to sell bonds to + much more normal rates of interest
I am not confident on 1 but 2 will happen. Heck it is already beginning as the main foreign purchasers of US debt, Japan, China, Saudi are cutting back their purchases. As are many other Nations who buy lesser but still significant amounts of US debt. What are they replacing Treasuries with? Gold. Why? IMO, it is in part b/c they observed the Biden admin unprecedented actions v Russia and want more diversification to minimize the future ability of them US to target them the same way and the recognition that the rise in interest rates is going to cause a ‘crowding out’ effect as debt service consumes more of each year’s budget. The govt is soon gonna have to decide whether to spend whatever is left after debt service on guns or on butter. One way causes domestic turbulence as our welfare state recipients get less or even none and the other weakens our military position as the global hegemonic power.
Your 7A proves most people vote for the family in front of the waving flag spewing “I approved this message” without vetting to see the politician in fact doesn’t support a word of that message.
Oh HELL yes. The EPA has earned it.