06.25.15

Ranking Member Grijalva Highlights Democratic Priorities, Republican Failings Ahead of Interior Appropriations Votes

Washington, D.C. – Ahead of today’s expected House floor debate on the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies appropriations bill, Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) highlighted Republican riders in the bill that would block the Administration’s fracking and stream protection rules, undermine the Endangered Species Act, and deny climate change, all of which are likely targets for Democratic amendments.

“This bill is what you get when my colleagues on the Natural Resources Committee, who are responsible for overseeing the Interior Department’s operations, shirk their basic duties and pass the buck to the appropriators,” Grijalva said. “This bill does a hundred unpopular things that would never pass as standalone bills, and my Republican friends know it. They seem to think, despite public opinion and common sense, that an appropriations bill should block enforcement of clean air and water standards, prevent the Fish and Wildlife Service from fighting the illegal ivory trade that kills thousands of elephants each year and funds terrorist groups, and divert Land and Water Conservation Fund dollars from actual conservation. They can’t describe this with a straight face as a serious attempt to fund our nation’s environmental agencies. It’s a blatant and frankly cowardly attempt to make new law on a must-pass appropriations bill. This is a big ideological overreach that needs improvement across the board.”

Grijalva highlighted several areas that will likely see Democratic amendments offered during debate:

- The bill forbids any spending of funds to create or enforce greenhouse gas emissions standards. That language and other aspects of federal climate change response will likely be subject to Democratic amendments.
- A Republican amendment to the base bill was added during the Appropriations Committee markup that blocks enforcement of federal fracking regulations. A Democratic amendment to strike that language is likely.
- Similar Republican language blocking any enforcement of a potential stream protection rule – which would regulate mountaintop removal mining – will face a likely strike amendment.
- Section 416 of the bill requires an accounting of federal money spent to assess climate change but not climate change’s impacts on our federal lands or economy. A Democratic amendment to strike that section is likely.
- Section 433 of the bill requires the Secretary of the Interior to give anyone who has lost grazing land to drought or wildfire an equal parcel as compensation, and to waive the National Environmental Policy Act during the transfer process. An amendment striking that section is likely.
- Republicans included language in the base bill delaying potential Endangered Species Act protections for sage-grouse, wolves and the long-eared bat. Democrats will likely propose to fund appropriate protection efforts for those species.
- The bill prevents any money from being spent by the Fish and Wildlife Service to enforce a ban on ivory trafficking in the United States. A Democratic amendment to fund ivory trafficking prevention is likely.