House passes spending bill full of giveaways to polluters and big cuts to EPA and NPS
The House of Representatives voted Thursday in favor of a omnibus spending bill that environmental organizations say will help polluters and reduce the country’s air and water quality. The bill also cuts a number of programs intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or streamline the transition to clean energy.
The bill cuts funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by more than $500 million — another blow to an agency that will now have to operate on less than 75 percent of its 2010 funding levels. The National Park Service received a 30 percent cut — a greater cut than even the White House suggested earlier this year in its infamously skeletal budget proposal.
Prior to the vote, a group of dozens of environmental groups wrote to representatives, begging them not to pass H.R. 3455.
“This bill does not responsibly or adequately fund the federal government or the many programs and thousands of civil servants tasked with implementing our nation’s landmark environmental laws, laws that protect our health, air, climate, water, oceans, wildlife, and treasured American landscapes,” said the groups, including Oceana, The Wilderness Society, Green Latinos, the Southern Environmental Justice Center, and League of Conservation Voters.
https://thinkprogress.org/house-budget-bill-polluter-giveaways-28c46276a6ad/
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