FY 14 House Appropriations Subcommittee Moves Funding Bill Forward

On Tuesday, July 23rd, the House Appropriations Interior & Environment Subcommittee marked up the still unnumbered FY 14 appropriations measure for EPA, Department of Interior programs (except Bureau of Reclamation), and various independent agencies.

Overall, the bill would fund all of these programs at $24.3 billion – a $5 billion reduction from current funding levels and a dramatic reduction from FY 11’s $32 billion.  Under this bill, EPA would take some of the greatest hits with an overall funding level of $5.5 billion – a more than $2 billion drop from the sequester-enacted $7.88 billion in FY 13 and well below the Administration’s FY 14 budget request of $8.46 billion.  For drinking water programs, much of the reduction would come from the DWSRF.  The FY 14 House draft would fund only $350 million for the loan program – a 61% reduction from FY 13.  The CWSRF would be funded at an even more reduced $250 million.

Under the House bill, several programs of interest to states would not being funded at all.  They include:  Alaska Native Villages, the US-Mexico Border water infrastructure program, EPA’s Smart Growth and Brownfields programs, and the Department of Interior’s North American Wetlands Fund and the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

The Subcommittee passed the measure along party lines.  No date has yet been published for action by the Full Appropriations Committee.  On the other side of the Capitol, the Senate has not indicated when it may take up this appropriations bill.