©2025 League of Conservation Voters
Chair Nita Lowey (D-NY) sponsored H.R. 7608, the State, Foreign Operations, Agriculture, Rural Development, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2021, which would boost funding for critical environmental, public health, and public lands programs for Fiscal Year 2021, including Environmental Justice, Superfund, Brownfields, and Diesel Emissions Reduction Act programs at the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, the bill would block extractive activities in or near the Arctic Refuge, Chaco Canyon, the Boundary Waters, the Tongass National Forest, and off our coasts. Importantly, the bill also adds $10.2 billion to the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Funds as much needed emergency supplemental funding. The bill would block attempts by the Trump administration to take away states’ rights to protect their waterways, weaken the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for power plants, and suppress science used in rulemaking. On July 24, the House approved H.R. 7608 by a vote of 224-189 (House roll call vote 166). YES IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE. A different bill, the year-end Appropriations and COVID-19 relief package (H.R. 133) approved by Congress and signed into law by the President on December 27, provided funding in line with FY20 amounts for environmental programs for the rest of FY21, but included a few anti-environment riders and did not include pro-environment policy provisions from H.R. 7608.
©2025 League of Conservation Voters