©2026 League of Conservation Voters
Ahead of this week’s House Appropriations Committee markup of the Fiscal Year 2027 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, 65 environmental organizations sent the below letter to members of the House Appropriations Committee urging them to oppose the bill.
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June 1, 2026
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative:
On behalf of our millions of members and supporters, the 65 undersigned groups urge you to oppose the House Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) during the full committee markup this week.
This bill would raise energy costs for hardworking families by cutting affordable clean energy, while continuing to dismantle the agencies that protect our lands, water, air, oceans, wildlife, climate, and public health. The bill includes numerous extreme, partisan, anti-environmental policy riders that have no place in the appropriations process. It would retreat from Congress’ most recent bipartisan agreement to fund the government and increase the risk of an unnecessary government shutdown. Rejecting the President’s most extreme cuts is not enough; Congress should judge this bill against the real needs communities face and the statutory responsibilities these agencies are required to carry out. This bill must be rejected, and Congress should instead pass a bill that provides adequate funding and excludes damaging policy provisions.
The bill would cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by roughly 20%, eroding protections for clean air and safe drinking water, and severely reducing support for the scientists, inspectors, state agencies, Tribal programs, and water systems communities rely on to prevent pollution, enforce the law, and respond to contamination. For example, it would drastically cut investments in the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, programs with longstanding bipartisan support that help states upgrade their water infrastructure. The bill would also weaken EPA’s cleanup capacity by reducing core Superfund appropriations and relying more heavily on uncertain revenue sources, risking slower cleanups at contaminated sites. The failure to provide dedicated assistance for communities with environmental justice concerns would leave many low wealth communities and communities of color with fewer resources to address air and water pollution and climate-related disasters. These cuts and policies are unacceptable because they shift more risk, health burdens, costs, and responsibilities onto families, states, Tribes, and communities already being asked to manage too much pollution on their own.
While we appreciate the improvements from the draconian cuts proposed in the President’s Budget Request, this bill would continue to underfund the agencies that administer our nation’s public lands, threaten healthy and imperiled wildlife populations alike, benefit extractive industries, and exacerbate the climate crisis. For example, the bill would cut funding to the National Park Service—following a year of massive reductions to staffing—and impede the more than 330 million annual visitors who visit our national parks, restricting tourism dollars to rural economies throughout the country. Similar cuts to the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Fish and Wildlife Service would further harm our nation’s public lands, water, wildlife, and the people who benefit from them.
Now is the time to invest more—not less—in the agencies and programs that steward our lands, water, air, oceans, and wildlife and protect our public health. Severe staffing shortages and the extreme cuts to the Department of the Interior, EPA, and other critical agencies are impeding their ability to deliver on their missions for the benefit of the American people. Underinvestment in these agencies and the services they provide the public undermines bedrock environmental laws that have had bipartisan support for decades.
The bill includes numerous harmful poison-pill riders eroding safeguards for our air, water, lands and wildlife which have no place in the appropriations process and must be rejected. Riders include ones that would restrict the EPA’s ability to follow the science and protect people from pollution, toxic exposures, and climate related risks. Other riders would undermine protections for wildlife, including some of our most iconic imperiled species, and interfere with science-based management of our national wildlife refuges, parks, and other public lands.
Despite our concerns about the substance of this bill, we recognize that this process is iterative and that legislation is painstakingly negotiated on a bipartisan basis. We want to be clear that we support efforts by Congress to protect and assert its rightful Article I authority through the FY27 appropriations process. Any future appropriations bills must go further to enact remedies to defend Congress’ constitutionally afforded power of the purse. At a minimum, Congress should include clear reporting and accountability requirements to ensure appropriated funds are used as intended, public dollars are spent transparently, and agencies are not using staffing cuts, reorganizations, office closures, delayed obligations, or program changes to undermine congressional direction. This bill does not provide those necessary assurances.
We urge you to reject this harmful proposal that would have long-lasting consequences for communities and the environment they rely on, and we thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
350 Bay Area Action
Alaska Wilderness League
American Bird Conservancy
Animal Protection New Mexico
Bayou City Waterkeeper
California Environmental Voters
Change the Chamber
Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) Action Fund
Clean Water Action
Climate Action Campaign
Climate Justice Alliance
Conservation Lands Foundation
Conservation Law Foundation
Conservation Voters of PA
Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action
Defenders of Wildlife
Earthjustice Action
Earthworks
Endangered Species Coalition
Environmental Defense Fund
Environmental Law & Policy Center
Environmental Working Group
Evergreen Action
Freshwater Future
Friends of the Earth Action
Glynn Environmental Coalition
GreenLatinos
Greenpeace USA
Illinois Environmental Council
Kettle Range Conservation Group
Kids for Saving Earth
Latino Outdoors
League of Conservation Voters
Maine Conservation Voters
Missouri River Bird Observatory
Moms Clean Air Force
Mountain Mamas
National Wildlife Federation
Natural Resources Defense Council
Nature for All
New Jersey League of Conservation Voters
New York League of Conservation Voters
Next 100 Coalition
North Carolina League of Conservation Voters
Ocean Conservancy
Ocean Defense Initiative
Oceana
Oil Change International
Oregon League of Conservation Voters
Oregon Natural Desert Association
Project Eleven Hundred
Sage Steppe Wild
Sierra Club
The Alaska Center
The Wilderness Society
Trust for Public Land
Union of Concerned Scientists
Vermont Conservation Voters
Vermont Natural Resources Council
Voices for Progress
Washington Conservation Action
Western Watersheds Project
WildEarth Guardians
Wildlife for All
Wisconsin Conservation Voters
©2026 League of Conservation Voters