For immediate release : Jun 28, 2024
Media contact:
Greta Anderson, Western Watersheds Project (520)623-1878; greta@westernwatersheds.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the “Fiscal Year 2025 bill for the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee,” passed out of the House Appropriations Committee, one day after the text was released to the public and members of Congress. The 224-page bill is laden with deep cuts to key agency budgets and a slew of anti-environmental riders, a cynical display of the priorities of the Republican-led committee.
“This bill sticks a finger in the eye of the American people who care deeply about clean air, climate change, endangered species, and responsible use of public lands,” said Greta Anderson, deputy director of Western Watersheds Project. “It’s a nasty wishlist to defund the priorities of protecting a livable future.”
The bill contains numerous riders to prevent Endangered Species protections for species like wolverines and greater sage grouse, and includes language prohibiting the reintroductions of experimental populations of grizzly bears in furtherance of their recovery. It also requires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reissue a rule delisting wolves in the lower 48 states, a Trump-era decision that was already overturned by the courts. It defunds implementation of final rules and executive orders issued by the Biden Administration, including the Conservation Rule for public lands, and prohibits any spending on the finalization of the sage grouse land use plans currently under revision.
“It’s so bad, it’s hard to believe that a majority of any party voted for this,” said Anderson. “We hope that there’s better sense – and a sense of responsibility to our collective future on this planet – on the Senate side.
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