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The League of Conservation Voters and Trust for Public Land led 50 environmental organizations in sending the below letter to Congressional Appropriators urging them to oppose the House Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bill during the full committee markup this week.
July 18, 2023
Dear Members of the House Committee on Appropriations,
On behalf of our millions of members and supporters, the 50 undersigned groups urge you to oppose the House Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bill during the full committee markup this week. In the middle of a summer full of record heat waves, horrific flooding, and wildfire smoke that is blanketing much of the nation, this bill would gut the agencies charged with protecting our environment and our health and would massively undermine last year’s historic climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act. It would also introduce an onslaught of extreme anti-environmental policy mandates that have no place in the appropriations process. This attack on our health, lands, wildlife, biodiversity, air, water, oceans, and communities is unacceptable and must be rejected.
There are so many outrageous attacks on our environment in this bill that it would be impossible to name them all. The bill proposes a draconian 40% cut to the Environmental Protection Agency, back to levels not seen in more than 30 years. It completely zeroes out spending on environmental justice programs. It slashes basic clean air and water protections and environmental cleanup programs. It rescinds funding for critical Inflation Reduction Act programs like the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Poison-pill policy riders would doom imperiled species to extinction and mandate fossil fuel lease sales in a bill that is supposed to fund environmental protection. This legislation is as outlandish as it is dangerous for our environment, and must be rejected by the Committee.
Environmental agencies are still struggling to rebuild capacity after the decade of harmful spending caps imposed by the Budget Control Act and four years of harsh spending cuts from the previous administration. Many of our groups highlighted the need for increased environmental funding in an April 26 letter in support of the President’s budget request. In June, Congress and the White House agreed on top-line funding levels for Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025. Those pre-negotiated funding levels—which the Senate is respecting—are painful enough. It is, therefore, both egregious and disingenuous for the House to mark up bills below those agreed-upon funding levels.
These partisan spending bills are dead on arrival in the Senate. By reneging on the bipartisan agreement, we fear the Committee is setting Congress on a path to a harmful and completely avoidable government shutdown. We urge you to reject these egregious attacks on our environment, and to take seriously the foundational duty of funding our government.
Sincerely,
League of Conservation Voters
Trust for Public Land
AFFTA Fisheries Fund
Alaska Wilderness League
American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
American Humanist Association
Animal Legal Defense Fund
Appalachian Mountain Club
Appalachian Trail Conservancy
Azul
CCAN Action Fund
Center for Biological Diversity
Center for Freethought Equality
Climate Action Campaign
Climate Law & Policy Project
Conservation Lands Foundation
Defenders of Wildlife
Earthjustice
Endangered Species Coalition
Environmental Defense Fund
Environmental Protection Network
Environmental Working Group
Friends of the Earth
Greenpeace USA
Humane Society Legislative Fund
Inland Ocean Coalition
Interfaith Power & Light
Los Padres ForestWatch
Maine Conservation Voters
National Audubon Society
National Ocean Protection Coalition
National Parks Conservation Association
National Wildlife Federation
National Wildlife Refuge Association
Natural Resources Defense Council
Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness
Ocean Conservancy
Ocean Defense Initiative
Oceana
Partnership for Policy Integrity
Sierra Club
Silvix Resources
Southern Environmental Law Center
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
The Earth Bill Network
The Wilderness Society
Union of Concerned Scientists
Voices for Progress
WE ACT for Environmental Justice
Western Watersheds Project