Full Title: FY 2016 House Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill: Right on Regulations, Wrong on Spending
Author(s): John Gray, Nicolas D. Loris, and Daren Bakst
Publisher(s): The Heritage Foundation
Publication Date: June 1, 2015
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The new Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 2822) will be the seventh discretionary spending bill considered by the House of Representatives this year. The bill would provide $30.17 billion in discretionary budget authority (BA) for fiscal year (FY) 2016, roughly $246 million less than current levels. The bill largely provides funding for the Department of the Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The bill also includes funding for Indian Health Services (Department of Health and Human Services) and the Forest Service (Department of Agriculture). Finally, the bill provides funding for various independent agencies, such as the Smithsonian and the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities. A number of programs in the bill, however, should no longer receive federal funding. The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, for instance, should be funded privately or at the state level. Although the bill fails to cut spending adequately, it does have important policy riders, including reversal of a number of harmful EPA regulations