While dramatic, the cut is still not as severe as the administration’s proposal, which would have slashed the EPA’s budget by 54 percent.
The House GOP’s bill includes 31 percent cuts to science and technology at the EPA and a 29 percent cut to its environmental programs and management of the environment.
While Republicans control both chambers of Congress, Democrats typically have some say in the appropriations process because of the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.
To get enough Democrats on board to evade the filibuster, Republicans will likely need to rein in their cuts to the agency, but it’s not clear by how much.
The proposal to cut the EPA budget 23 percent was announced Monday and advanced through the Appropriation’s Committee’s Interior-Environment subcommittee in a party-line vote.
In addition to the EPA, House Republicans are proposing to cut the National Park Service budget by 7 percent — much less than the Trump administration’s proposal, which sought to cut Park Service staffing and operations by 30 percent each.
The legislation also seeks to block the EPA from continuing to assess the harms that “forever chemical” contamination in agriculture can pose to the food supply.
Read more at TheHill.com.
