Obama officials bash EPA spending bill

Two top Obama administration officials Tuesday lambasted House Republicans for a bill they say would have “far-reaching consequences” for federal environmental protections.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Gina McCarthy and White House Office of Management and Budget head Shaun Donovan told reporters Tuesday that the White House would not accept the policy provisions attacking top environmental priorities or funding cuts that would make it difficult to protect the nation’s air and water.

{mosads}“The appropriations bill currently under consideration by the House would have far-reaching consequences for the agency’s ability to ensure protections of public health and the environment,” McCarthy said.

She singled out provisions in the 2016 bill that block funding to enforce the EPA’s carbon dioxide rules for power plants, its water jurisdiction rule and its plan to restrict ozone pollution.

But the EPA’s funding level of $7.4 billion — a 9 percent cut from the current year and 14 percent below President Obama’s request — would make it hard for the EPA to do its most basic work, McCarthy argued.

“The budget would … threaten the core work of the agency, on which there’s general agreement,” she said. “To put it very simply, if the agency doesn’t have enough money to operate, and is further restrained by far-reaching policy riders, the protection of public health and the environment on which Americans rely will be compromised.”

McCarthy gave a similar review of the House bill and its Senate companion earlier Tuesday, telling reporters, “taking away our core budget doesn’t just impact the Clean Power Plan and problems of the future.”

The House formally resumed debate on the bill Tuesday and is expected to vote on it this week.

The legislation also funds the Interior Department and has other policy provisions and cuts that the administration opposes, including to the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Administration officials are also upset that the bill excludes wildfire funding changes they proposed.

Donovan said the bill is just another in a pattern from congressional Republicans, who are further extending budget limitations hashed out in 2013 by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who led the budget committees at the time. The budget limit agreement ends this year.

“We could do a call exactly like this call today on every single one of the House and Senate Republican bills, because the math just doesn’t work out,” Donovan said. “It would result in terrible, real-world consequences that go well beyond the two bills that we’re talking about today.”

But Donovan said he was especially incensed by the policy provisions.

“It is becoming increasingly clear that Republicans are attempting to hijack the appropriations process to accomplish unrelated ideological proposals,” he said. “We will not accept Republicans using it that way.”

Donovan said he is very optimistic that the White House, Democrats and Republicans can come to a new budget agreement that increases funding levels.

But he blamed Republicans for the fact that that has not happened, saying they’ve refused to negotiate.