Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Chairman, I thank the ranking member for yielding.

I rise, Mr. Chairman, in opposition to this legislation. The bill that the majority put before us today grossly underfunds the Department of the Interior. I will mention two areas: the Environmental Protection Agency and the arts and humanities. The ranking member listed the others.

Once again, the cuts the Republicans made to the appropriation bill do not honor the funding levels that were negotiated by the White House and the Republican leadership in the Fiscal Responsibility Act. A promise was broken.

Over 35 percent of the reduction to the top line of this bill is simply irresponsible. The bill claws back billions of dollars from the historic Inflation Reduction Act trying to plug up the holes created by the massive top line cuts.

This will damage the ability of the United States to respond to climate change and help communities who are currently affected by it, and we are affected by climate change in all of our districts.

As ranking member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, I am very aware that the DOD considers climate change to be a top national security issue. Harming our country's ability to respond to this threat will put us at a severe global disadvantage.

This bill's drastic cuts to the EPA and the Interior Department also affect the life, health, and safety of all Americans. It will increase risk to all people who rely on the EPA to safeguard their air and water, to clean up harmful pollution, test for chemicals in their products, and respond to emergencies.

There is one small, bright note in this bill, and I thank the chair and the ranking member for continuing their work together to honor our trust and treaty obligations to our Native American brothers and sisters, but on the whole, the bill before us does not, in my opinion, reflect the serious commitment to meet the needs of our constituents.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill.

Mr. Chair, I could come up with some tax cuts to repeal to pay for the things I am asking for.

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