Legislative Letters

LETTER: Oppose H.R. 6147, an anti-environmental spending bill with harmful poison pill riders

Jul 17, 2018

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. 6147, the “Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2019,” which includes damaging cuts to environmental and public health programs, as well as a host of anti-environmental policy riders.

H.R. 6147, which includes the House Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, slashes or inadequately funds our nation’s critical environmental safeguards and investments. The bill deeply cuts the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as many of the agency’s civil servants and public health safeguards, thus weakening the agency’s ability to protect our air, water, and climate. H.R. 6147 also includes harmful cuts to essential conservation efforts carried out by the Department of the Interior, including a $65 million cut to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), our nation’s best parks program. H.R. 6147 would also slash funding for protecting our nation’s most imperiled wildlife nearly in half.

Additionally, H.R. 6147 contains numerous anti-environmental policy riders that have no place in a spending bill. These poison pill riders include provisions repealing the Clean Water Rule that protects the drinking water of one in three people in this country and attacking protections for wildlife such as the greater sage-grouse. These riders ultimately prevent efforts to implement core laws and policies that protect public health, undermine environmental review and public input, and protect our nation’s lands and waters.

We urge you to REJECT H.R. 6147, oppose anti-environmental amendments, and support pro-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