[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 118 (Thursday, July 21, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1159]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 H.R. 5538, INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS 
                                  BILL

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EARL BLUMENAUER

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 21, 2016

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I emphatically voted ``no'' on House 
passage of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies 
appropriations bill (H.R. 5538) last week, which was a parade of 
misguided provisions and poison pill policy riders that will roll back 
critical environmental protections and seriously harm our climate, our 
natural surroundings, and wildlife. We can do better than this shameful 
attempt at governing.
  We should be supporting programs to clean our air and water, protect 
our precious natural resources, and help us transition to a clean 
energy future. Instead, this legislation moves us in the opposite 
direction.
  The bill cuts the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) operating 
budget and blocks spending on key programs and regulations at a time 
when we need greater--not fewer--resources to protect our health and 
guarantee clean air and clean water. This reality is particularly 
painful for communities like Flint, Michigan and my hometown of 
Portland, Oregon, where the EPA is assisting with recent air toxics and 
water-related crises, trying to stretch meager funding even as the 
stakes get higher. The legislation also continues the Republican 
charade of climate change denial, undermining the administration's 
Clean Power Plan and the President's bold commitments made to the 
international community at the Paris Climate Conference last year.
  This bill underfunds key Department of Interior agencies tasked with 
protecting and conserving lands and wildlife, such as the U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and Bureau of Indian Affairs. 
It slashes the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which has been 
fundamental for protecting public land and recreation in Oregon and 
across the country. One of the bill's more offensive provisions blocks 
Presidential declarations under the Antiquities Act, eliminating the 
potential of a national monument in southeastern Oregon's magnificent 
Owyhee Canyonlands and other threatened areas of natural beauty 
throughout the United States. In short, the bill takes multiple steps 
backwards when we should be ramping up efforts to protect, conserve, 
and take better care of our natural world.
  My Republican colleagues took this opportunity to score political 
points by tacking on damaging policy riders that have no place in the 
appropriations process. These riders block funding for implementation 
of common sense regulations like the Well Control Rule, the Obama 
Administration's National Ocean Policy, the Bureau of Land Management's 
hydraulic fracturing rule, to name a few. There are also riders that 
would stall progress we've made in preventing drilling in the Arctic 
Ocean, prevent the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park 
Service from setting minimum standards for hunting on federal lands in 
Alaska, block federal protection of species like the iconic gray wolf 
and Preble's Meadow jumping Mouse, roll back the Clean Air Act and stop 
additional action to prevent climate change, the greatest environmental 
challenge of our time. Even closer to home, one proposed amendment 
would have blocked the historic agreement between Oregon, California, 
PacifiCorp, and conservation organizations to remove four dams on the 
Klamath River, but luckily it was not successful.
  This was a shameful showing by the House. While I joined my 
colleagues in efforts to block many of the most harmful provisions and 
policy riders, ultimately the Republican majority let big polluters and 
special interests rule the day, playing politics with what should have 
been an opportunity to sensibly fund important parts of the government. 
Our legacy should be one of conservation, careful investment in 
preservation of precious natural resources, and protection of human 
health and our fragile climate. This bill could not be more damaging to 
that legacy, and its passage demonstrates we must fight harder for the 
future our planet deserves.

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