The House Appropriations Committee passed a fiscal year 2012 (FY12) Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill on July 12 that included substantial cuts to agency spending and key conservation programs, as well as policy riders impacting natural resource related issues, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. After 10 hours of debate on amendments, the bill was passed on a party line vote sending it to the full U.S. House of Representatives for consideration later this month.

Overall, the bill would fund the Department of the Interior (DOI) at $9.9 billion, $720 million less than it received in the fiscal year 2011 (FY11) continuing resolution and $1.2 billion less than the President's request. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) allocation would be cut $500 million from its budget request ($315 million less than FY11) to $1.2 billion, the largest agency cut for the entire Department. The Bureau of Land Management would be funded at $1 billion ($63 million less than FY11); the National Park Service would be allocated $2.5 billion (a $129 million reduction from FY11); and the U.S. Geological Survey would receive $1.05 billion ($30 million less than FY11). The USDA Forest Service would be funded at $4.5 billion?a $164-million cut from FY11 and $412 million less than the President's budget request.

Within the overall agency budgets, several key programs are slotted for disproportionate cuts. The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is proposed to be cut to $61.8 million, an 80-percent reduction from what it received in 2011 and far less than the $900 million full funding proposed in the President's budget. Funding at that level would essentially only cover administrative costs. The Cooperative Endangered Species Fund (funded within the LWCF account) is slated to receive just $2.85 million?a 95-percent reduction from FY11.

"The proposed cuts to LWCF will impact access for sportsmen throughout the country," commented Blake Henning, Vice President of Lands and Conservation at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. "For example, in Montana, the cuts will severely impact our Tenderfoot Creek project, which would secure access for public recreation including hunting by consolidating checkerboard land ownership in the Lewis & Clark National Forest."

In addition, the North American Wetlands Conservation Act fund is slated for $20 million ($30 million below FY11 levels), and the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants Program would be cut to $22 million ($40 million less than in FY11 and a 77-percent reduction from the President's budget request). Climate change mitigation and adaptation activities within Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would be cut 22 percent.

In addition to the deep funding cuts, the bill includes several policy riders aimed at bedrock environmental laws. Language within the bill would prevent the FWS from listing any new endangered species or designating any new critical habitat, and it would prohibit species delisting decisions from being challenged in court. The DOI would be blocked from protecting 1 million acres of federal lands near the Grand Canyon from new hard rock mining. EPA was the target of numerous policy provisions, including preventing the finalization of guidance to clarify Clean Water Act protection for some wetlands and streams, discontinuing rule making on mountaintop mining, and preventing the agency from using the Clean Air Act for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In his opening remarks, Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-ID) stated: "Earlier this year, I said that the scariest agency in the federal government is the EPA. I still believe that. The EPA's unrestrained effort to regulate greenhouse gases and the pursuit of an overly aggressive regulatory agenda are signs of an agency that has lost its bearing. Wherever I go, the biggest complaint I hear about the federal government is about how the EPA is creating economic uncertainty and killing jobs. This isn't a partisan issue. Members of both parties have said that the EPA's regulatory actions vastly exceed its authority. The responsibility to determine whether or not to expand that authority rests solely with Congress?and not the EPA."

The bill heads to the House floor later this month, where it is expected to pass with limited changes and be sent to the Senate. The Senate has held hearings on the Interior and EPA budgets but has not yet developed its alternative to the House bill. (jas)