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Ranking Member DeLauro Floor Remarks on Republicans’ 2025 Interior and Environment Funding Bill [1]

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Date: 2024-07-23 18:28:37-04:00

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks on the House Floor in opposition to the 2025 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies funding bill:

Thank you, Madam Chair.

My appreciation goes to Chairman Simpson and Ranking Member Pingree, and to the Interior and Environment subcommittee staff for their hard work on this bill, especially Rita Culp and Jocelyn Hunn.

The departments and agencies funded in the Interior and Environment bill ensure that our air is safe to breathe, and that our water is safe to drink; that our National Parks and other public lands are protected and that they are accessible to the American people; and that our nation’s unique and iconic flora, fauna, landscapes, and ecosystems are preserved for our health, safety, and enjoyment, for generations to come.

But, rather than making sound investments to protect our air and water, preserve our National Parks, and ensure the environment we all share and live in remains clean and protected, the majority’s bill benefits the most egregious polluters and climate science deniers, jeopardizes public health and safety, hinders our responses to the climate crisis, and endangers rural and low-income communities.

But this disastrous proposal did not come out of nowhere. This is explicitly where the majority wants to take the country. Project 2025 is the Trump MAGA Republican agenda to take over the government and destroy our rights and freedoms. But it is not just a document on a website – we can see the fingerprints of Project 2025 across each of the majority’s appropriations bills.

Project 2025 commands that environmental oversight and regulations be rolled back or entirely eliminated – preventing the Department of Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency from safeguarding the atmosphere, our waterways, and public lands, and preventing Interior and EPA from tracking emissions and pollutants. It reverses critical protections for endangered species, including for the grizzly bear and gray wolf. And, of course, Project 2025 steps on the gas, so to speak, when it comes to fossil fuel extraction, and it pumps the brakes on any green energy investments.

In short, Project 2025 advocates for climate and environmental arson. And we can see exactly where the majority has taken its cues from the climate catastrophe manifesto in this bill.

The majority cuts the EPA’s Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds by $678 million. This is funding for water we drink, bathe, and cook with – a basic life necessity that we have a clear obligation to protect for the American people.

And, the bill zeroes-out funds for environmental justice, worsening the impacts of environmental discrimination for rural and poor communities. Every American deserves to live in a healthy, clean, and safe environment, but this bill abandons those who are most affected by environmental destruction and climate change.

By cutting efforts to reduce carbon emissions, slashing community resiliency programs, and requiring fossil fuels lease sales on public lands while prohibiting clean energy projects, the bill unwinds our response to climate change and promotes dirty energy, taking the side of fossil fuel companies and those who deny the scientific reality rather than address the escalating risk to our economy and national security presented by the changing climate and growing number of extreme weather events.

The impacts of climate change are deadly and costly and can be felt in communities around the world – including in each of our districts. We cannot put our heads in the sand and act like climate change will disappear.

I have proudly worked across the aisle to protect our environment and public lands for Americans past, present and future, and I am immensely disappointed to see the majority abandon their obligation to conserve America’s lands and natural resources.

I believe that National Parks are America’s best idea, but sharp cuts to the National Park Service mean fewer seasonal employees and furloughing existing permanent employees, making it more difficult and cumbersome for our constituents to visit and enjoy our nation’s crown jewels. Cuts to the Smithsonian Institution will likewise curb Americans’ access to the world’s greatest museum, education, and research complex.

To top it all off, the majority has included some 83 new policy riders that put endangered species at risk, damage the environment, and obstruct clean energy development; hinder the work of the Environmental Protection Agency; and discriminate against millions of Americans.

I would like to read a portion of a letter we received from 69 environmental organizations, led by the League of Conservation Voters and Trust for Public Land. They say, and I quote, “This bill is riddled with so many outrageous policy attacks on our environment that it is impractical to list them individually. Similarly extreme riders were removed from the final [fiscal year 2024] Interior Appropriations bill just a few months ago; by going down this path again, we fear Congress is wasting valuable time that could be better spent producing bipartisan legislation that has a realistic chance of becoming law. We urge you to reject this proposal, which is equal parts damaging and unrealistic.” End quote.

The ramifications of this bill would reach every corner of the country. This bill damages our public lands, promotes dirty energy, jeopardizes biodiversity, and obstructs our response to the climate crisis. Thus, I cannot support this bill, and I encourage my colleagues to vote against it.

Democrats are ready to pass legislation that protects our environment, our public lands, and the health and safety of the American people.

I implore the majority to join us. It is time to govern.

I yield back.

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[1] Url: https://democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/statements/ranking-member-delauro-floor-remarks-republicans-2025-interior-and-environment

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