House Republicans pitch 23 percent cut to EPA

In their appropriations bill, House Republicans take a whack at the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget, proposing to slash its funding by 23 percent.

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. 

In order to get enough Democrats on board to evade the filibuster, Republicans will probably 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.

Separately, a bill to fund the Commerce Department announced this week cuts funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, by about 6 percent, rejecting much more dramatic cuts sought by the Trump administration. 

The Interior-Environment bill also contains several policy provisions that were criticized by Democrats as pro-polluter.

This includes seeking to block the EPA from implementing Biden-era pollution regulations, including those governing automobile emissions.

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. Forever chemicals, also known as PFAS, are a family of toxic chemicals that have been used in nonstick and waterproof products and have, in some cases, been spread across farmland.

“The bill doubles down on rolling back burdensome and costly regulations from the prior administration and helps unleash American energy and domestic mineral development,” said Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) who chairs the appropriations Interior-Environment subcommittee, during a markup of the bill.

“Defunding the EPA's climate change work isn't just a policy position, it is condemning future generations and our children and grandchildren will suffer because of these cuts,” said Rep. Chellie Pingree (Maine) the subcommittee’s top Democrat, during the markup.

She described the “forever chemical” provision as “particularly egregious,” saying “blocking the EPA [from] working to better understand the potential risk to human health and the environment posed by the presence of PFAS and sewage sludge makes absolutely no sense.”