House Democrats: Don't Use Budget to Gut Environmental Protections
Washington, DC - This afternoon, fifty-six Democratic members of the House of Representatives, who recently supported short-term budget Continuing Resolutions (CR) to continue funding for the federal government, sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner expressing reservations for future support for another CR or budget if it contains policy “riders” that would gut important bi-partisan environmental protections. Unlike H.R. 1, and recent GOP proposals, the previous CR’s did not contain these riders. This letter was led by the leaders of the House Sustainable Energy & Environment Coalition (SEEC).
“We feel strongly that these policy provisions, which would significantly jeopardize the protection of American communities and ecosystems, should not be included in a bipartisan budget bill.
“H.R. 1, which was passed by the House of Representatives in February 2011, contained 19 anti-environmental riders that would negatively affect air, water, and environmental quality, through a wide range of provisions, including preventing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from proposing, implementing or enforcing any regulations on stationary sources of greenhouse gas emissions, limiting toxic emissions, preventing the EPA from restoring certain waterways, and preventing the Administration from protecting wilderness areas and certain endangered species. These anti-environmental riders would roll back 40 years of bipartisan efforts to strengthen environmental protections. As you know, the U.S. Senate refused to consider this legislation.”
The most recent CR – which will fund the government through April 8, 2011 - did not contain these policy riders, and suffered significant loss of Republican support when it was passed by the House on March 15, with fifty-four Republicans opposing. These Republican-sponsored anti-environmental policy riders, which have no impact on the budget, threaten to endanger a budget agreement.
“The push amongst some in the Republican Conference to include anti-environmental riders in a long-term CR is greatly concerning. While these riders do not reduce federal spending, they would precipitously alter 40 years of environmental statute. A budget bill is not the appropriate venue to make significant policy changes without going through the proper hearing and markup process in committees of authorization. We would like to work with you to find common ground on a CR to fund the government for the remainder of FY11, but we would have very strong reservations about supporting a long-term CR that limits the Administration’s authority to protect air, water, and environmental quality, and its Supreme Court-mandated duty to protect public health.”
The full text of the letter can be found below.
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March 31, 2011
The Honorable John A. Boehner
Speaker of the House of Representatives
H-232, U.S. Capitol Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Speaker Boehner,
As Democratic Members of Congress who voted for a recent, clean Continuing Resolution (CR) to continue funding for the government, and who would like to avoid a shutdown of essential government operations, we write to strongly urge you not to include anti-environmental policy “riders” in the long-term CR for Fiscal Year 2011 (FY11).
The appropriations process and the authorizing process are two important, but distinct, congressional responsibilities. We feel strongly that these policy provisions, which would significantly jeopardize the protection of American communities and ecosystems, should not be included in a bipartisan budget bill.
H.R. 1, which was passed by the House of Representatives in February 2011, contained 19 anti-environmental riders that would negatively affect air, water, and environmental quality, through a wide range of provisions, including preventing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from proposing, implementing or enforcing any regulations on stationary sources of greenhouse gas emissions, limiting toxic emissions, preventing the EPA from restoring certain waterways, and preventing the Administration from protecting wilderness areas and certain endangered species. These anti-environmental riders would roll back 40 years of bipartisan efforts to strengthen environmental protections. As you know, the U.S. Senate refused to consider this legislation.
The two recent short-term CR’s that were passed into law did not include these policy riders. The most recent of these measures passed the House on March 15 and the Senate on March 17, and will keep the government funded until April 8. Fifty-four House Republicans voted against this short-term CR, and we were among the House Democrats that voted for one or both of these measures, which also passed the Democratically-controlled Senate. We believe that the next, long-term CR will need to attract similar bipartisan support.
The push amongst some in the Republican Conference to include anti-environmental riders in a long-term CR is greatly concerning. While these riders do not reduce federal spending, they would precipitously alter 40 years of environmental statute. A budget bill is not the appropriate venue to make significant policy changes without going through the proper hearing and markup process in committees of authorization. We would like to work with you to find common ground on a CR to fund the government for the remainder of FY11, but we would have very strong reservations about supporting a long-term CR that limits the Administration’s authority to protect air, water, and environmental quality, and its Supreme Court-mandated duty to protect public health.
Sincerely,
Reps. Jay Inslee, Steve Israel, Rush Holt, Jared Polis, Gerry Connolly, Chellie Pingree, Chris Van Hollen, Jim Moran, John Sarbanes, Allyson Schwartz, Ben Ray Luján, Mike Quigley, Mike Doyle, Susan Davis, Shelley Berkley, Lloyd Doggett, Lois Capps, Fortney Pete Stark, Martin Heinrich, Adam Schiff, Gary Ackerman, Theodore Deutch, Eliot Engel, Steven Rothman, Louise Slaughter, Jim Langevin, Diana DeGette, Andre Carson, Jackie Speier, G.K. Butterfield, David Price, Kurt Schrader, Peter Welch, Brad Sherman, John Carney, David Wu, Chris Murphy, Bill Pascrell, David Cicilline, Anna Eshoo, Mike Thompson, Niki Tsongas, Carolyn McCarthy, Brian Higgins, Gary Peters, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Peter Defazio, Joe Courtney, Tim Bishop, Carolyn Maloney, Ed Perlmutter, John Larson, Jim Himes, Russ Carnahan, William Keating, Anthony Weiner
CC: The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader, House of Representatives
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The Sustainable Energy & Environment Coalition (SEEC) is a coalition of forty-eight Democratic members of the House of Representatives that was founded in January 2009 to be a focused, active, and effective caucus for advancing “policies that promote clean energy technology innovation and domestic manufacturing, develop renewable energy resources, and create green collar jobs throughout the product supply-chain, and polices to help arrest global warming and protect our nation’s clean air, water and natural environment.” SEEC is co-chaired by Reps. Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Steve Israel (D-NY). SEEC vice chairs are Reps. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), Rush Holt (D-NJ), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Jared Polis (D-CO), and Paul Tonko (D-NY).