FY13 INTERIOR-ENVIRONMENT FUNDING BILL CUTS CLIMATE PROGRAMS BY NEARLY 30%

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
06/29/12

The House Appropriations Committee reported out a Fiscal Year 2013 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill that slices deeply into climate change programs, proposing a cut of more than $100 million, or 29 percent, across several government agencies. In the report accompanying the bill, House Republicans said they were cutting funding for the programs, which cumulatively have received a 93 percent funding increase between 2008 and 2011, to reduce duplicative and wasteful spending. “The Committee remains skeptical of the Administration’s efforts to re-package existing programs and fund new ones in the name of climate change,” the report says. “That the climate is changing is not in dispute. However, recent rapid increases in funding and the number of new and seemingly duplicative programs are potentially wasteful.” The report says that spending in the area is too “expensive and uncoordinated,” and that the panel would only consider increasing investment if there is “significant improvement” in the level of coordination between climate change activities and budgets across federal agencies. Democrats on the Appropriations Committee called the cuts “irresponsible.” 

During a two-day markup on the spending legislation this week, the full Committee passed a handful of amendments aimed largely at curtailing EPA’s regulatory authority. Most of those measures were approved along party lines. One amendment, sponsored by Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), bans EPA from using funding to move forward on New Source Performance Standards for greenhouse gases emitted fossil fuel-fired plants. Another amendment, sponsored by Rep. Steve Austria (R-Ohio), prohibits EPA from using funds to finalize greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars after the 2017 model year. The committee shot down a handful of Democrat-sponsored attempts to restore EPA program funding and authority cut under this legislation.

Funding Measure Cuts EPA Budget by 17 Percent

The funding measure, which passed the full committee on a largely party line vote of 26-19 June 28, provides EPA with a budget of $7 billion for FY2013, about 16 percent less than the Obama Administration’s $8.34 billion request. If ultimately approved, the appropriation would put EPA’s budget at its lowest funding level in 15 years, a committee fact sheet said. The funding measure continues to cap EPA’s personnel levels, cuts funding for the office of the EPA Administrator by more than 30 percent and slashes money for the agency’s Office of Congressional Affairs by 50 percent.

Republicans on the committee said that the measure will help shield against EPA “overreach.” “This bill cuts funding for programs and agencies that stifle economic growth rather than encourage it. For instance, we’ve reduced the EPA’s budget by 17 percent from last year—taking this portion of the bill down $3.2 billion since fiscal year 2010,” Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said this week. “We also prohibited funding for the implementation of numerous job-killing rules and policies. These cuts and restrictions represent the Committee’s concern that EPA’s unprecedented regulations are strangling American business and industry. And every cut made in this bill achieves substantial savings for the taxpayer at a time when our deficits continue to escalate.”

Democrats Say Cuts Too ‘Drastic’

Democrats on the Committee said that the spending cuts, particularly those directed towards EPA, are overly “drastic.” “The deep funding cuts to important conservation and environmental protection programs would, if enacted, cause serious harm to our environment,” Interior-Environment Subcommittee Ranking Member Jim Moran (D-Va.) said at the hearing. “Likewise, this bill again includes a number of riders and funding limitations that I believe do not belong in the bill and whose effect would be to undermine important environmental law. I strongly disagree on the need for these provisions. Protecting the public’s health did not cause the recession, and suspension of these laws will not sustain a recovery.”

The measure is expected to easily clear the full House, and consideration could occur within the coming weeks. However, a multitude of amendments could bog down the funding measure, a situation that occurred last year, when the measure had to be pulled from the floor due to the sheer volume of amendments proposed. Consideration of an Interior-Environment spending bill has yet to occur on the Senate side, but spending priorities will likely differ greatly. The House version of the measure also faces a veto threat from the White House, which previously vowed to veto any spending measures that do not adhere to the $1.047 trillion cap on discretionary spending agreed to in last summer’s debt ceiling negotiations. Instead, the House budget operates under a lower $1.028 trillion spending cap for discretionary programs, a move that the Administration says will stunt key government programs.