WASHINGTON – The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday passed a $30.01 billion bill to fund the Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency and related agencies. The measure, which passed 16-14, also blocks implementation of the EPA’s plan to address climate change.
It’s the first appropriations bill to clear the committee for these agencies since 2009. It provides $11.05 billion for the Interior Department, $1.18 billion for the Bureau of Land Management, $2.72 billion to fund the National Park Service and $1.43 billion to fund the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Opponents said the measure adheres to “unreasonable” spending limits set by the 2013 budget sequester. Also, they objected to inclusion of provisions that don’t directly affect spending but instead aim to dismantle environmental laws.
The office of Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., who is not on the Appropriations Committee, indicated Bennet generally supports removing the spending caps set by the 2013 sequester.
“(Bennet) believed the sequester was bad policy then, and it’s bad policy now,” said Adam Bozzi, Bennet’s communications director. “There’s no reason we can’t come together to fix the sequester and reduce our debt in a smarter way.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, defended the bill she authored against amendments from Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. The first amendment Udall offered would increase spending levels by almost $2 billion, much of which he said would help create jobs and fund health and suicide-prevention programs for Native American tribes.
Murkowski reminded the panel of the spending limits.
But the money was only the first part of the debate.
The bill included several policy riders – language that would affect law, not necessarily funding. Among them were riders that would defer to state and tribal standards for regulating fracking, and one that would block EPA from holding hard-rock mining and mineral-processing industries financially responsible for hazardous waste produced as a result of their operations.