The House is expected to consider their FY16 Interior-Enviornment Appropriations bill for the bulk of this week. The $30.2 billion Interior-Environment spending bill will take center stage as the House is scheduled to consider the controversial measure on the Floor, possibly for long hours with many amendments.
The typically contentions bill is particularly so this year because of impacts to environmental policy priorities for the Administration. The bill would bar the Obama administration from implementing its final Clean Water Act rule defining the scope of the government’s regulatory authority under the law. It would keep the Bureau of Land Management from enforcing its hydraulic fracturing regulations on public lands in states that have their own rules governing those operations. Similarly, it would preclude the EPA from imposing a federal plan on states that do not submit their own strategies to implement the agency’s greenhouse gas limits for existing power plants, known as the Clean Power Plan. It contains several policy riders that would block Obama administration initiatives including endangered species protections and climate change regulations.
While the Administration has yet to issue a veto threat against the legislation, it would not be unexpected given the proposed cuts and policy riders.