The GOP spending bill revealed Sunday would make significant budget cuts to the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to the bill’s text.
The funding bill — which will need to pass by Friday in order to prevent a partial government shutdown — proposes to cut fiscal year 2024 funding for the EPA by about 10%. The legislation would give the agency nearly $3 billion less than President Joe Biden asked for in his budget request.
In total, the bill would appropriate $9.158 billion to the agency to carry out its business in fiscal year 2024, according to its text. That figure is $976.5 million below the enacted EPA budget for fiscal year 2023, according to the agency’s website. (RELATED: Officials Told Biden’s EPA That Its Aggressive Green Power Plant Scheme Has Serious Flaws, Docs Show)
Shortlist For EPA’s Multi-Billion Dollar ‘Green’ Fund Features Groups With Deep Connections To Biden Admin, Demshttps://t.co/VqkAdhYmo1
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) November 15, 2023
The EPA has been an active bureaucratic player in the Biden administration’s massive climate agenda, promulgating a host of stringent regulations to limit the use of fossil fuels and shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to facilitate climate-related initiatives. The agency is reviewing the bill, but it cannot comment on pending legislation, an EPA spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
In addition to moving to slice the EPA’s budget, the proposed appropriations package would also cut the Biden administration’s requested “environmental justice” budget by about $275 million and includes a provision to ban the sale of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) to Chinese companies.
The agency’s budget has increased every fiscal year since 2017, according to its website. The EPA is looking to add hundreds of employees to its ranks to help implement programs created by the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Biden’s signature climate bill, according to E&E News.
The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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