©2026 League of Conservation Voters
2023
220
213
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House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) sponsored H. Res. 5, a resolution adopting the rules of the House of Representatives for the One Hundred Eighteenth Congress and for other purposes, which in addition to organizing the chamber for the new Congress, attempts to enforce strict budget cuts on future appropriations. The provision would cap spending at Fiscal Year 2022 levels, a more than $130 billion cut, or 8 percent, from Fiscal Year 2023, which would translate into a 22 percent cut for environmental programs and other non-defense discretionary spending since Department of Defense spending would likely be exempted. Fiscal Year 2023 increases saw critical restorations in agency staffing and critically needed funding for programs that address the legacy of toxic pollution and the climate crisis after four years of budget cuts from the previous administration and a decade of draconian spending caps. The rules package also makes it easier to give away our nation’s public lands by removing the requirement that the costs of these transfers be offset regardless of the value of these lands to the public and taxpayers. At a time of significant concern about the influence of polluters and other special interests in politics and just two years after an insurrection some House members supported, this package would also hobble the bipartisan Office of Congressional Ethics by imposing arbitrary term limits to eject Democratic ethics board members and effectively prohibiting it from hiring new staff, making it much harder to hold unethical officials accountable. On January 9, the House approved H. Res. 5 by a vote of 220-213 (House roll call vote 23). NO IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE. The House approves its own Rules Package and it takes effect immediately upon passage, though the rules may be, and often are, waived by a majority vote.
©2026 League of Conservation Voters