House GOP approves cutting EPA budget by nearly 40 percent
by Rachel Frazin and Aris Folley - 11/03/23 11:08 AM ETHouse Republicans approved legislation Friday that would slash nearly 40 percent of the budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The funding bill, passed by a 213-203 vote, cuts 39 percent of the EPA’s budget and would be the smallest budget the agency has had in three decades. Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Mike Lawler (N.Y.) and Marc Molinaro (N.Y.) voted against the bill, while Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (Texas) was recorded as voting for it.
Republicans have had longstanding complaints about the agency, which takes on pollution, contamination and climate change, arguing that it overreaches.
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who chairs the subcommittee that wrote the bill, characterized the funding reductions it would deliver as necessary to curtail Inflation and the national debt.
“Cutting funding is never easy or pretty, but with the national debt in excess of $33 trillion and inflation at an unacceptable level, we had to make tough choices to rein in federal spending,” Simpson said on the floor Thursday.
The massive funding cut proposed by the GOP has virtually no chance of becoming law in this year’s budget but marks a starting point in negotiations for Republicans as they look to negotiate with Democrats in the Senate on funding the government.
more
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4291864-house-gop-approves-cutting-epa-budget-by-nearly-40-percent/
