Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) railed against a recent decision from congressional Republicans in the House Committee on Appropriations that would cut the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Budget, and includes a 20 percent cut to Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) funding.
“Coming off the 13th consecutive month of record-shattering temperatures across the globe, House Republicans just passed an @Interior, @EPA, +related agencies funding bill that completely disregards the reality of a warming planet and ignores the need for us to do more, not less,” said Rep. Pingree on X.
The budget for fiscal year 2025 passed through the Republican-led committee, and represents a $72 million drop from the 2024 budget, in addition to being $4.4 billion less than what President Biden requested.
The budget also focuses on expanding U.S. energy and oil production, rolling back progressive environmental policies that would likely harm U.S. businesses, and opposing far-left Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Pingree responded to the bill by fearmongering about warm temperatures and citing unspecified “experts” as a reason to take drastic action to change the weather.
“Climate change is a clear and present danger and the experts agree that we must take bold action to avoid major, irreversible catastrophe. It seems like every year when we need to mark up this bill, there’s a new record broken for extreme heat,” said Pingree.
The new budget blocks numerous Democrat proposed regulations, such as bans on hunting or fishing on state land and some EPA regulations on vehicle emissions.
It also prohibits funds for revoking oil and natural gas drilling leases in Alaska, orders the resumption of oil drilling lease sales, and reinstates leases for some mining projects.
Committee Republicans also used the bill to prohibit any funding for DEI initiatives or COVID mask and vaccine mandates, and forbids national parks from being used to house illegal immigrants, programs which Democrats attempted to include in the budget.
The budget does all this while also providing additional funds to fight ongoing environmental problems, such as forest fires, rather than focusing on hypothetical future disasters.
The $38.4 billion budget was approved by the Appropriations Committee with a 29-25 vote.
