Broad Coalition of Climate & Environmental Organizations Condemn House Passage of Dangerous Cuts in Interior & Environment Appropriations Bill

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 4821, the House Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations bill. In response, over 60 advocacy groups warn that the House is leading Congress to a government shutdown by passing an appropriations bill that would eviscerate environmental protections, decimate historic climate progress in the Inflation Reduction Act, green light harmful poison pill anti-environmental riders, and much more.

Specifically, this appropriations bill would:

• Gut funding to the agencies that protect the environment and public health, including a 40% cut to the Environmental Protection Agency;
• Defund environmental justice initiatives, which deepens the environmental discrimination experienced by rural and low-income communities;
• Eviscerate bedrock clean air and water protections and environmental cleanup programs;
• Slash Inflation Reduction Act investments, including the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and programs intended to address environmental health impacts in underserved communities;
• Mandate oil and gas lease sales and prohibit growth in clean energy projects;
• Strip protections for imperiled species and undermine the Endangered Species Act;
• The House also adopted a number of extreme amendments that further polarized the bill, both harming our environment and legislating on culture-war issues that have no place in the appropriations process.
• More harmful provisions can be found here.

In in response to the passage of the Interior & Environment FY24 Appropriations Bill, these 55+ groups reiterated their opposition with the following statement:

“There are so many outrageous attacks on our environment in this bill that it would be impossible to name them all.

Following a summer full of record heat waves, horrific flooding, and wildfire smoke blanketing much of the nation, this bill would gut the agencies charged with protecting our environment and our health and would massively undermine last year’s historic climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act.

In contrast to the Senate’s bipartisan bills, the House is once again setting Congress on a path to a harmful and completely avoidable government shutdown. This attack on our health, lands, wildlife, biodiversity, air, water, ocean, and communities is unacceptable and must be rejected.”

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Below are the 58 groups who signed onto the letter, as well as additional organizations that endorsed the statement:

League of Conservation Voters
Trust for Public Land
350.org
AFFTA Fisheries Fund
Alaska Wilderness League
American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
American Humanist Association
Animal Legal Defense Fund
Appalachian Mountain Club
Azul
CCAN Action Fund
Center for Biological Diversity
Center for Freethought Equality
Clean Water Action
Climate Action Campaign
Climate Law & Policy Project
Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks
Conservation Lands Foundation
Defenders of Wildlife
Earthjustice
Earthworks
EcoMadres
Elevate
Endangered Species Coalition
Environmental Defense Fund
Environmental Law & Policy Center
Environmental Protection Network
Environmental Working Group
Evergreen Action
Friends of the Earth
GreenLatinos
Greenpeace USA
Hispanic Access Foundation
Humane Society Legislative Fund
Inland Ocean Coalition
Interfaith Power & Light
Kids for Saving Earth
Los Padres ForestWatch
Maine Conservation Voters
Moms Clean Air Force
National Audubon Society
National Ocean Protection Coalition
National Wildlife Federation
National Wildlife Refuge Association
Natural Resources Defense Council
Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness
Ocean Conservancy
Ocean Defense Initiative
Oceana
Partnership for Policy Integrity
Sierra Club
Silvix Resources
Southern Environmental Law Center
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
The Earth Bill Network
The Wilderness Society
Union of Concerned Scientists
Voices for Progress
WE ACT for Environmental Justice
Western Watersheds Project
Native Organizers Alliance
Zero Hour