HOUSE APPROPRIATORS’ FY14 PLAN WOULD CUT EPA BUDGET BY 33 PERCENT

Top Republican Says Bill Targets Obama’s Climate Plan

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
7/26/13

A House Appropriations subcommittee advanced legislation this week that would significantly cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency in Fiscal Year 2014; and would block the agency from regulating CO2 emissions from new and existing power plants. The House Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee passed a spending bill July 23 on a 7-4 party-line vote that would allocate $5.5 billion for the EPA, a 33 percent cut below the White House’s FY 2014 request.

Committee Republicans said the smaller allocation for EPA represented an effort by House leaders to rein in what they say has been an agency “rife with governmental overreach” in recent years, according a committee fact sheet released this week. Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said the FY 2014 budget is meant more specifically to target the recently-announced White House climate change plan. “This Administration’s appetite for new regulations and disregard for the will of Congress have left us with little choice but to block his climate change agenda in this bill,” Simpson said during this week’s subcommittee markup of the bill. “The actions we’ve taken to address the EPA’s overreach and reduce its budget not only help us meet the tight spending constraints under which we’re operating, they help our struggling economy and encourage job creators to invest and expand.”

Bill Includes Riders Blocking Carbon Regs

The bill would provide $636.09 million for EPA’s Science and Technology program, which spearheads much of the agency’s research into air, climate and energy systems, a 19 percent cut from the President’s FY 2014 request. It leaves $1.49 billion for State and Tribal Assistance Grants, the vehicle through which EPA implements clean air and water programs via grants to states, tribes and local governments. That funding level represents a 53 percent cut below the White House’s request. The appropriations bill also caps EPA’s personnel to 1992 levels and cuts funding for the Administrator’s office by more than 30 percent compared to pre-sequestration FY 2013 levels, appropriators said.

The legislation, which more broadly allocates $24.3 billion across all federal interior and environment programs, represents a 19 percent cut overall compared to FY 2013 enacted levels, and $4 billion less than the level caused by the March sequester, according to committee figures. The bill also includes more than two dozen policy riders, including one aimed at curtailing upcoming EPA regulations cracking down on carbon emitted from new and existing power plants, a key prong of last month’s climate plan. The provision would block any federal funding from going to “develop, issue, implement or enforce any regulation or guidance under section 111 of the Clean Air Act establishing any standard of performance applicable to the emission of any greenhouse gas by any new or existing source.” The White House has directed EPA to propose retooled standards for new power plants by September and provide guidance for states regarding existing units by June 2014 under the controversial plan, which bypasses Congress entirely and rests solely on executive branch authorities.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), a strong coal advocate, said the carbon regulations would shutter coal plants across the country and hurt the economy. “The President wants to put the nail in [coal’s] coffin by regulating greenhouse gases on new and existing power plants regardless of fuel sources. This is a regulatory tilting of the playing field in favor of other energy sectors that will prove disastrous for American families, businesses and our energy security,” he said during this week’s markup. “The pain already felt in Appalachia will be known across the country if these regulations are allowed to take effect. I’m proud to say that this bill will serve as a check on the EPA, reducing its operations funding and prohibiting this harmful regulatory energy tax and several other proposed rules that would only serve to harm the economic recovery.”

‘A Tough Budget Year’

Subcommittee Republicans this week underscored that the proposed EPA budget was a product of tough choices made during a notably difficult budget cycle. “Simply put, this bill makes very difficult choices in an extremely tough budget environment. In order to fund critical ‘must-do’ priorities, like human health, public safety and treaty obligations and responsibilities, we’ve had to reduce and even terminate some programs that are popular with both members of Congress and the American people,” Simpson said.  Meanwhile, Democrats sharply criticized the funding bill. Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) said the measure is “perhaps the worst bill that this Committee has considered for Fiscal Year 2014,” citing a “thoroughly inadequate allocation, coupled with severe, targeted reductions. “It makes absolutely clear the detrimental effects of [House Budget Committee Chairman Paul] Ryan’s budget on our domestic investments, forcing draconian cuts that will harm American prosperity,” Lowey added.

Subcommittee Ranking Member James Moran (D-Va.) walked out of the markup after calling the measure a “disgrace” that “should be an embarrassment to the subcommittee.” “This subcommittee was formed to protect the environment, to fund those programs that the American people care about. I think this is an extraordinary departure from fulfilling our role and responsibility to the people and programs that depend upon this bill,” he said. “I know my views are in the minority. I know that any vote we take, we’re going to lose … but at this point, I just can’t participate in this markup.”

Measure Likely to See Deluge of Amendments

The measure is expected to sail through the full Appropriations Committee when it marks up the measure. However, the bill is considered a non-starter in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and the White House is expected to issue a veto threat, as it has with all other appropriations bills considered by the lower chamber, since they fall under a top-line discretionary funding level of $967 billion. Democrats in the Senate are instead working under a $1.058 trillion spending cap for Fiscal Year 2014.

It is unclear whether House leaders will even attempt to bring the Interior-Environment spending bill to the floor, as it has been a magnet for contentious amendments in recent years. The draft bill that emerged out of the Appropriations Committee last summer never saw action on the House floor out of worries that the measure would become bogged down by policy riders, as was the case for the FY 2012 Interior-Environment measure before it was pulled from the House floor.