This week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4821, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2024. The funding bill contains dozens of House Committee on Natural Resources member priorities. Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) issued the following statement in response:

"The Biden administration has gotten far too comfortable with not answering to the American people for their policies, and smart fiscal legislation like this Interior appropriations bill will remind them what accountability looks like. No federal agency is owed money simply because it exists. Congress holds the power of the purse and has a responsibility to examine the policies and practices of our agencies each year. I and many of my colleagues submitted amendments to this appropriations legislation that will rein in unchecked bureaucracy and ultimately put money back into the American taxpayer's pocket. I was proud to support the final legislation and know it represents the hard work and smart policies of congressional Republicans." 

Background

As part of the annual appropriations process, House Committee on Natural Resources members submitted amendments to the funding proposal to modify and improve various portions of the final legislation. The House advanced numerous committee priorities, including:

• An amendment reducing funding for the Council on Environmental Quality’s (CEQ) Office of Environmental Quality from $3,750,000 to its currently authorized level of $1,000,000 for fiscal year 2024, offered by House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.)
• An amendment prohibiting funds from being used to implement the Biden administration’s Ocean Justice Strategy, which forces environmental justice principles into the federal government’s ocean activities, offered by House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.)
• An amendment preventing the Biden administration from enforcing CEQ’s phase 1 and phase 2 National Environmental Policy Act regulations, which will increase permitting timelines and ignore the bipartisan provisions made by Congress in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, offered by U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber (R-Minn.)
• An amendment preventing any funding from being made available to finalize or implement the CEQ guidance entitled "National Environmental Policy Act Guidance on Consideration of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change," offered by U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.)
• An amendment prohibiting the Director of the Bureau of Land Management from taking any action to finalize, implement, or enforce the proposed rule on Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process which will increase energy prices for American families, offered by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.)
•  An amendment prohibiting funding from being used to carry out the Biden administration’s misguided 30 by 30 effort, offered by U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho)