Dear Representative,

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) works to turn environmental values into national priorities. Each year, LCV publishes the National Environmental Scorecard, which details the voting records of members of Congress on environmental legislation. The Scorecard is distributed to LCV members, concerned voters nationwide, and the media.

LCV urges you to vote NO on H.R. 5895, the “Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019,” a “minibus” of the FY19 Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Acts that includes dangerous public health and environmental policy riders while also cutting critical investments in our renewable energy future.

H.R. 5895 continues the House Republican leadership’s history of circumventing regular order by inappropriately including harmful policy riders in spending bills. For example, the package includes a radical provision that would completely repeal the Clean Water Rule, thereby disregarding the rulemaking process, ignoring the strong scientific foundation of the rule, and eliminating critical safeguards for our waterways. Other damaging riders would further threaten water quality by exempting the discharge of exceptionally damaging dredged or fill material from review by the Army Corps of Engineers under the Clean Water Act; undermine the legal settlement to help restore the San Joaquin River; threaten the existence of thirteen imperiled wild salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia River Basin; and stop the implementation of the beneficial National Ocean Policy, which allows agencies at all levels to coordinate ocean development activities.

Further, H.R. 5895 severely cuts federal investment in clean energy, abandoning the research and development that has led to economic growth, job creation, and numerous public health and environmental benefits. The bill cuts $28 million in funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), which helps develop and commercialize new energy technologies. It also reduces funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by $243 million under FY18 levels, which will hinder job creation and harm essential programs that support the development of solar energy, sustainable transportation technologies and wind energy.

Just as we should be leading the world in 21^st century water and energy solutions, this bill fails to promote proper use of our water, ocean and natural resources and scales back funding for clean energy innovation.

We urge you to REJECT H.R. 5895, support all pro-environment amendments, and oppose all anti-environmental amendments. We will strongly consider including votes on this bill in the 2018 Scorecard. If you need more information, please call my office at (202) 785-8683 and ask to speak with a member of our government relations team.

Sincerely,

Gene Karpinski

President