House subcommittee approves nearly $7B bump to EPA, Interior funding

House appropriators on Tuesday considered more than $100 billion in proposed government funding legislation, including investments in clean energy and climate efforts, as well as spending boosts for arts and humanities.

Negotiators passed the annual Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies funding bill out of its respective subcommittee on Tuesday afternoon, sending the bill to the full appropriations panel for consideration.

The fiscal 2023 spending bill offers nearly $45 billion in funding for the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Wildland Fire Management, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Smithsonian Institution, among other agencies and items. The funding bill marked an 18 percent, or $6.8 billion, increase from the previous fiscal year’s spending levels.

Democrats touted several aspects of the bill during a markup session Tuesday, including investments in education and health care programs in tribal communities, efforts aimed at combating climate change, and what they’ve hailed as historic increases to the arts and humanities.

“First and foremost, this is a climate bill. I believe that through the investments made in this bill, our country will be better positioned to confront the climate crisis,” Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), who chairs the subcommittee, said on Tuesday.

Although Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), the top Republican on the subcommittee, acknowledged bipartisan components of the bill, he objected to the legislation in its current form over language he argued could “weaken U.S. energy and mineral security by limiting development of these and other natural resources.”

“Utilizing all our domestic resources to increase production brings stability to the marketplace into our energy grid, reduces energy costs, spurs economic growth, and creates good paying jobs … We cannot lock America out from the domestic energy and minerals it needs for a smooth transition to a cleaner energy future,” Joyce said, while also raising concerns about proposed costs, citing inflation.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies also advanced its fiscal 2023 funding bill Tuesday afternoon. The bill totals more than $56 billion, up $3.4 billion from the previous fiscal year.

The bill boosts funding to $48.2 billion for the Department of Energy, including what Democrats say are record increases for energy and science programs, as well as investments in the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Reclamation, among a list of other offices.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), chairwoman of the spending panel on energy and water development, touted the proposed investments in her opening statements, saying the bill meets the needs “of the current moment by propelling American energy independence and our nation’s security forward.”

“This bill ensures American inventors, scientists, workers and American companies power our future at an accelerating rate,” she said, while also discussing “the imperative of national energy independence,” particularly amid the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war.

However, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), the top Republican on the panel, pushed back against various portions of the bill, which he said was “based on a funding level that passed the House without Republican support.”

House appropriators have now passed more than half of the chamber’s dozen annual appropriation bills out of subcommittee, including the fiscal 2023 legislation outlining proposed funding for defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Food and Drug Administration.

The House Appropriations Committee is set to take up the legislation in the coming weeks, with full committee votes for some bills already on the calendar later this week, as leadership aims to pass all of the lower chamber’s annual appropriations bills before the August recess.

However, the Senate has yet to release any of its government funding bills for fiscal 2023, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have struggled to reach an agreement on spending top lines.

The slower pace in the upper chamber has fed concerns among some members around timing, with the clock ticking on the remaining weeks of legislative time in the current congressional session and as the critical midterm elections creep up.

Both sides are also facing pressure to put a bow on their annual spending legislation before the end of the year, as both of the Senate’s top appropriators are set for retirement.

If Congress doesn’t pass its spending bills by the annual deadline at the end of September, lawmakers will likely resort to a continuing resolution, which allows the government to remain funded under the prior year’s fiscal levels, to avoid a shutdown. 

Congress last year passed three continuing resolutions to avert a shutdown before ultimately passing a $1.5 trillion spending omnibus package for fiscal 2022 in March.