WASHINGTON, June 15, 2016 - Republicans are setting the
stage for another fight over the Obama administration’s “waters of the United
States” (WOTUS) rule during budget negotiations with the White House later this
year.
The Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee
on Tuesday advanced a fiscal 2017 spending bill that includes a provision to
stop the rule from being enforced in case a court stay gets lifted. A similar
rider is included in the House’s Interior-Environment bill as well as its
Energy-Water measure.
“We all want good environmental stewardship,” said Sen. John
Hoeven, R-N.D. “We’ve got to do it in a way that respects private property
rights.”
But the WOTUS rider and other environmental provisions
ensure that the bill will face broad Democratic opposition if and when
Republicans try to move the measure on the Senate floor. “We are not prepared
to gut environmental laws as the price to get spending bills passed,” said New
Mexico Sen. Tom Udall, the ranking Democrat on the Interior-Environment
subcommittee.
House Republicans on Tuesday, meanwhile, released a 57-page
economic agenda that includes a call for the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers to
withdraw the WOTUS rule. The plan says the rule “could significantly restrict
the ability of landowners to make decisions about their property and the rights
of state and local governments to plan for their own development.” House
Agriculture Chairman Mike Conaway was part of the GOP task force that developed
the plan, one of six Republicans are releasing on issues such a poverty,
national security, the Constitution, and healthcare.
Another provision that Democrats termed a poison pill would
override court rulings that require gray wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes
to remain protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Udall also complains that the bill, which funds the Forest
Service, would provide too little money for firefighting. The bill would
provide the 10-year rolling average of firefighting costs, or $1.6 billion.
That is $661 million less than the Forest Service and Interior Department said
they would need for 2017, according to Democrats. Republicans say the bill
includes a budget cap adjustment that allows agencies to spend additional money
when the appropriated funds run out.
The bill would cut funding for the Land and Water
Conservation Fund by $50 million, to $400 million for fiscal 2017. The Payment
in Lieu of Taxes program, which compensates local governments for revenue they
lose because of federal land holdings, would be increased by $28 million in
2017 to $480 million.
The bill also includes a provision, sought by Western ranchers,
which would allow the carryover of grazing fee credits from year to year to pay
for improvements on federal lands. Hoeven said federal land agencies support
the provision.
“This bill strikes a critical balance – directing federal
resources where they are needed, while blocking excessive regulations and
obstruction that are causing harm and burying us in red tape,” said Lisa
Murkowski, the Alaska Republican who chairs the subcommittee.
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