House Republicans have introduced another appropriations bill and, as you might expect, it's loaded with poison.
Murray Energy CEO Bob Murray's lawsuit against the Obama administration and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was thrown out of court this week because he challenged a set of regulations that haven't been implemented or even finalized yet, but House Republicans hope to ensure that never happens by blocking the measures during the appropriations process.
The appropriations bill would also cut the EPA's budget by a significant amount, among other things.
via ThinkProgress
On Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee introduced its budget bill for environment-related agencies in fiscal year 2016. That bill includes provisions to block what the committee calls “harmful, costly, and potentially job-killing regulations” from the Environmental Protection Agency, including the much-talked-about Clean Power Plan and the Waters of the United States rule. [...]
Along with prohibiting the EPA from implementing those regulations, the bill would reduce the EPA’s funding by $718 million, a 9 percent reduction from fiscal year 2015 levels. [...] In addition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would be cut by $8 million, and the Department of Interior would be forced to stop giving federal protection to endangered gray wolves in Midwestern states.
We've been over this before but it's not a coincidence that congressional Republicans have introduced a series of completely unacceptable, asinine appropriation bills.
We've come to expect terrible policy from the GOP, but if their efforts seem especially broad this year it's because they're attempting to pass legislation that conforms to their fantasy budget framework that would cut spending by trillions of dollars and radically transform the government.
Speaker of the House John Boehner made it a goal to complete the entire appropriations process for the first time in years, and that's all well and good unless your budget framework is a steaming pile of shit.
Absent significant changes, none of the GOP's funding bills will be signed into law by the president and we will face another potential government shutdown at the end of the current fiscal year. Completing John Boehner's coveted appropriations process would be a total loss if it didn't present excellent campaign fodder for Democrats.