XPost: sci.energy, talk.politics.guns, talk.politics.misc   
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   In article    
      
   House Republicans approved legislation Friday that would slash   
   nearly 40 percent of the budget for the Environmental Protection   
   Agency (EPA).   
      
   The funding bill, passed by a 213-203 vote, cuts 39 percent of the   
   EPA’s budget and would be the smallest budget the agency has had in   
   three decades. Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Mike Lawler   
   (N.Y.) and Marc Molinaro (N.Y.) voted against the bill, while   
   Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (Texas) was recorded as voting for   
   it.   
      
   Republicans have had longstanding complaints about the agency, which   
   takes on pollution, contamination and climate change, arguing that   
   it overreaches.   
      
   Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who chairs the subcommittee that wrote   
   the bill, characterized the funding reductions it would deliver as   
   necessary to curtail Inflation and the national debt.   
      
   “Cutting funding is never easy or pretty, 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,” Simpson said   
   on the floor Thursday.   
      
   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.   
      
   Rep. Chellie Pingree (Maine), the top Democrat on the Interior-   
   Environment funding subcommittee, said the bill “debilitates   
   America’s ability to address the climate crisis and hobbles the   
   agencies within its jurisdiction.”   
      
   “I urge my colleagues to protect the world you are leaving to your   
   children and grandchildren and oppose the bill,” she said.   
      
   The bill would also deliver cuts, albeit less dramatic ones, to the   
   Interior Department, reducing its funding by about 4.5 percent. It   
   delivers a steeper cut of 13 percent to the National Park Service.   
      
   The legislation would also require the Biden administration pursue   
   drilling off the coast of Alaska, where the administration does not   
   currently plan to offer new oil lease sales. It would require the   
   administration to auction off the right to drill for oil there at   
   least twice a year and would also require twice-a-year-oil lease   
   sales in regions of the Gulf of Mexico.   
      
   The bill looks drastically different from its counterpart in the   
   Senate, which calls for $7 billion more in total funding than the   
   legislation passed in the House and was approved with overwhelming   
   bipartisan support in committee earlier this year.   
      
   The gap comes as no surprise, as House Republicans announced earlier   
   this year they would be marking up their fiscal 2024 government   
   funding plans below the budget caps deal struck between President   
   Biden and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) over the summer.   
      
   Hard-line conservatives had sought to dial up pressure on GOP   
   leadership to make further spending cuts.   
      
   The bill was expected to contain billions of dollars in additional   
   cuts as part of an intraparty agreement later in the summer to lock   
   down support from hard-line conservatives. Simpson is among the   
   appropriators who voiced frustration with the pressure campaign by   
   hard-liners at the time.   
      
   But Simpson and other top appropriators told The Hill in recent days   
   that they have been backing away from earlier plans to further big-   
   dollar cuts to the funding legislation, as conservatives have   
   signaled they’ll give Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) some breathing   
   room amid spending talks.   
      
   https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4291864-house-gop-   
   approves-cutting-epa-budget-by-nearly-40-percent/   
      
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