The League of Conservation Voters led 11 environmental organizations in sending the below letter to the House of Representatives making the following vote recommendations on amendments to H.R. 8752, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2025, when they come up for votes. The League of Conservation Voters will strongly consider including votes related to these amendments in our 2024 National Environmental Scorecard.

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June 26, 2024
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Re: Amendment Vote Recommendations on H.R. 8752, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2025.

Dear Member of Congress,

On behalf of our many members and supporters, the 11 undersigned groups make the following vote recommendations on amendments to H.R. 8752, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2025. While not all undersigned organizations work directly on each of these issues, we appreciate your consideration of these pro-environmental positions.

Thank you for your consideration,

League of Conservation Voters
Chispa
American Bird Conservancy
Clean Water Action
Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks
Defenders of Wildlife
Earthjustice
Friends of the Earth Action
Natural Resources Defense Council
Ocean Defense Initiative
Sierra Club

Vote YES

14. Garcia, Robert (CA) The divisive, anti-immigrant, and anti-environmental border wall has caused irreparable damage to wilderness, wildlife, and equitable access to nature along our southern border, creating not only ecological damage but also great harm to areas Indigenous peoples regard as sacred. Advancing environmental justice is intertwined with building an immigration system that respects the dignity and humanity of the people and communities most impacted by the climate crisis, many of whom are seeking asylum here and are in need of shelter and services. This amendment would wisely redirect funding from the damaging border wall to more humane and helpful efforts in the face of worsening climate change impacts. 

Vote NO

5. Biggs (AZ) and 18. Greene (GA) Any amendments to arbitrarily and punitively eliminate or drastically cut salaries for federal government officials are personal financial attacks on individuals whose job it is to carry out the administration’s policies and are wholly inappropriate and unwarranted. Top officials directing important federal government business should be fairly paid for their work, and any attacks on government officials’ pay should be rejected.

9. Cammack (FL) Federal public interest agencies issue rules that protect public health and safety, preserve natural resources, safeguard our air and water, and provide other crucial benefits to people nationwide. Arbitrarily restricting rules would put the public and the environment at risk.

29. McCormick (GA) Advancing environmental justice is intertwined with building a healthy democracy and an immigration system that respects the dignity and humanity of the people and communities most impacted by the climate crisis. This amendment would block the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to challenge or remove the illegal, inhumane, and life-threatening barriers put in place by Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border. 

38. Norman (SC) The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the third largest department in the Federal Government with over 50,000 vehicles in their inventory. Prohibiting DHS from purchasing electric vehicles would decrease federal fleet efficiency while increasing vehicle operation and maintenance costs and our reliance on volatile and expensive fossil fuels.

43. Ogles (TN) President Biden’s Executive Order on Access to Voting is a critical effort to increase nonpartisan voter registration and participation when people interact with government agencies. This amendment would thwart common-sense, good-government innovations to better serve voters of all stripes, frustrating the goals of the decades-old, bipartisan National Voter Registration Act.

46. Ogles (TN) This amendment would block efforts to advance environmental justice, particularly needed in communities on the front lines of climate change impacts and dangerous legacy environmental and health hazards. For too long, communities of color, Indigenous tribes, low income communities and other historically underserved groups have been forced to bear the brunt of climatic hazards, land annexation, and pollution and have rarely had adequate access to the benefits of our coasts, oceans and other natural spaces.  

54. Roy (TX) Advancing environmental justice is intertwined with building a healthy democracy and an immigration system that respects the dignity and humanity of the people and communities most impacted by the climate crisis. This amendment would block the Biden-Harris administration’s recent humane action to keep families together and ensure hundreds of thousands of children and spouses of citizens can access their legal pathway to residency without threat of deportation.  

55. Roy (TX) This amendment would prohibit funding to implement executive orders that help reduce harmful pollution, tackle the climate crisis, advance environmental justice, jumpstart clean energy innovation and deployment, and accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy. The damaging effects of this amendment would include hobbling our government’s ability to prepare for and respond to the very real threat of climate change.

58. and 59. Tiffany (WI) Advancing environmental justice is intertwined with building a healthy democracy and an immigration system that respects the dignity and humanity of the people and communities most impacted by the climate crisis. These amendments would block the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to allow those community members from El Salvador and Honduras respectively, which have suffered climate change-fueled disasters driving immigration to the U.S., from continuing to live in and contribute to our collective communities and economies.  

The following amendments go against our organizations’ commitment to racial justice and equity – we urge opposition on any en bloc that includes these or similar amendments: 39. Norman