GOP House Appropriators are on the Wrong Track

WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week House Republicans advanced only one of the four funding bills originally slated for votes after failing to achieve a consensus within their conference. Their Interior-Environment funding bill to cut the EPA’s budget to 1998 levels narrowly passed with bipartisan opposition. Republican leadership was forced to pull the rest of the bills, including their Energy-Water and Agriculture-FDA funding bills, due to lack of support from their members.

“Congress needs to meet their basic responsibility of funding the federal government, but extreme Republicans in the House are once again putting culture war messaging tactics ahead of governing,” said Joanna Slaney, Environmental Defense Fund Associate Vice President for Political Affairs. “This week’s funding failure reinforces that the draconian budget cuts and harmful provisions in the funding bills put forward by House Republicans are unrealistic and unpopular. We need responsible funding bills that provide agencies with the resources to protect our health, keep our air and water clean and stabilize our climate. Extreme House Republicans should take a page from the Senate and engage in realistic, bipartisan negotiations.”