Hearing of the House Appropriations Committee - FY 2016 Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill
Hearing
This bill totals $30.17 billion, supporting important Department of Interior and environment
programs that protect and promote our natural resources within a responsible, sustainable budget.
The bill also preserves the role of the federal government -- making sure that the government is
doing its job well, while ensuring that it is not harmful or intrusive into the lives of the American
people or our economy.
This bill makes great strides to budget responsibly, investing in proven programs while making
cutbacks where we can. The EPA is one such agency that can certainly make do with less.
The bill reduces funding for the EPA by $718 million -- 9 percent below last year -- encouraging
the agency to streamline its operations, and focus on its core duties rather than meddling in an
unnecessary, job-killing regulatory agenda.
This Administration has been hell-bent on implementing all sorts of regulations that are harmful
to both our economy and our energy security -- seemingly without concern for the thousands of
hard-working Americans who might lose their jobs, or see more and more of their paychecks
going toward their electric bills. Nowhere is this more evident than in my district and coalmining
communities throughout the nation.
So, bill-wide, we have included several, important policy provisions aimed to stop this sort of
overzealous bureaucratic red tape.
For instance, the bill prohibits the EPA from changing the definitions of "navigable waters" and
"fill material" and prevents them from implementing new, over-the-top greenhouse gas
regulations for power plants. The bill also prevents increased oil and gas inspection fees and
grazing fees.
We must do whatever we can to keep the government from inhibiting economic growth by
overregulating and overtaxing American business and industry, and this appropriations bill is a
great place to start.
Again, I want to thank the Chairman and Ranking Member for bringing this legislation before
the Committee today, as well as the entire subcommittee for their work putting this bill together.
I also want to thank the staff for their hard work, as well.
I urge the Committee to support this bill today.
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