BACKGROUND

House Appropriations subcommittees approved three fiscal 2026 bills earlier in July with massive cuts to conservation, environment and climate initiatives. Included among the bills, the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee passed its bill on a party-line 8-5 vote. Interior would get about $14.8 billion and EPA would be funded at $7 billion, with the Interior/EPA bill including about $3 billion in spending cuts. These cuts come on top of the July 4 GOP reconciliation package that rescinded unobligated funds for various EPA grant initiatives under the Inflation Reduction Act. Full House committee markup of the Interior/EPA bill is Tuesday. 

This amounts to further dismantling of the agencies that protect our public health, lands, water, air, oceans, and wildlife which are already stunned by layoffs and illegal impoundment, while adding a host of extreme anti-environmental policies that have no place in the appropriations process. The bill would slash enforcement of bedrock environmental laws, expose communities to toxic pollution, and reverse progress to address the climate and nature crises.

Among the poison pill riders, the bill includes reducing protection of national monuments designated under the Antiquities Act, threatening water quality in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness by defunding a mining ban that would prevent toxic mining, and seeking to prevent the designation of wilderness in Big Cypress National Preserve.

Several other riders directly undermine the protection of threatened and endangered species. It rescinds important regulations implementing the Endangered Species Act, with some riders singling out grizzly bears, gray wolves, wolverines and northern long-eared bats. Several other policy riders give extractive industries easier access to public lands and weaken the government’s ability to protect them. 

Late last week it was also announced that the Senate will markup their Interior bill this Thursday which does not contain all of the same awful policy provisions (riders) but is still woefully underfunded.

COALITION MEMBERS RESPOND

“We’re seeing House appropriations leaders try this sneaky way to eliminate protections for the wildlife and wild places we love,” said Jewel Tomasula, National Policy Director, Endangered Species Coalition “If these bought-out politicians get their way, gray wolves and grizzly bears would again disappear from the American landscape. If the House’s version of the Interior/EPA bill became law, prairie birds, bats, wolverines, national wildlife refuges and more would be lost to unchecked logging, mining, and drilling.” 

“Republicans have cheered while the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency have illegally impounded funds and undermined the agencies that protect our climate, clean air and water, public lands, and wildlife,” said  Earthjustice Legislative Director for Lands, Wildlife, and Oceans Addie Haughey. “This bill would go even further and impose deep budget cuts on those critical agencies that we all depend on, along with policy riders that include industry handouts and a strange preoccupation with culture war issues that seek to divide us. Instead of furthering Trump’s deregulatory agenda, we urge Congress to focus on strong investments in these agencies that safeguard our environment and public health.” 

“This anti-environment, pro-polluter budget proposal by House Republicans undermines decades of civic and environmental protections that benefit all Americans,” said Pedro Hernández, GreenLatinos Public Land Advocate. “Slashing funding for programs that advance public health protections, environmental stewardship, and social equity are a nonstarter and demonstrate a lack of good-faith negotiation.” 

“At a time when communities are dealing with extreme heat, wildfire, and drought brought on by climate change, the House majority is spending its time conspiring to break down recent environmental progress and gut bedrock laws that are often the last form of protections for our nation’s public lands and natural resources,” said Justin Meuse, Government Relations Director at The Wilderness Society. “The Senate must reject this deeply flawed bill on sight and restart its efforts on passing legislation that builds resilience in areas and communities hit first and worst by climate disaster and enables the federal government to meet the moment.” 

For more information contact Tony Iallonardo, communications contractor for ATB4A.