Republicans Move Forward with Funding Bill that Raises Utility Bills and Energy Prices, Slashes Resources for National Parks

Harmful Bill Guts Resources for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Arts to Line the Pockets of Polluters

WASHINGTON — During this morning’s House Appropriations Subcommittee markup of the 2026 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies funding bill, House Democrats emphasized that President Trump and Republicans are doing nothing to lower the cost of living. Instead, they are introducing funding bills that raise utility bills and energy prices and fail to confront the climate crisis. 

House Republicans' Interior funding bill takes an aggressive anti-environment, pro-pollution stance with crippling cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and policy provisions that endanger public health. The bill also slashes funding for National Parks and arts programs.

The bill:

• Raises utility bills by shifting costs onto state and local governments and making electricity more expensive through funding cuts and extreme policies that would cripple renewable energy development.
• Worsens the climate crisis by defunding critical Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) work.
• Slashes funding for national parks, threatening Americans’ ability to enjoy public lands.
• Guts resources for museums, arts, and culture, suppressing Americans’ engagement with the arts and art education.
• Favors polluters over public health through dozens of harmful policies that undermine EPA’s ability to regulate pollution.
• Promotes environmental discrimination against rural and poor communities by making it more difficult for hardworking people to deal with the rising costs associated with climate change.
• Exploits public lands and accelerates ecosystem decline by allowing harmful and dirty mining activities and by removing Endangered Species Act protections for numerous species.

From Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Chellie Pingree’s (D-ME-01) opening remarks:

“We have been witnessing how the majority’s unwillingness to negotiate a full year bill last year has undermined the power of this Committee and of Congress. The administration is funding – or rather, not funding — programs at whatever levels it wants, all while refusing to share details with the Committee. We are so in the dark that the report accompanying the bill couldn’t include comparisons to the enacted level. [...] The cuts in this bill are irresponsible and will hurt agencies that are already struggling to deliver services to the public. Any arguments that these cuts are somehow fiscally responsible ring hollow in the wake of Republicans adding $3.4 trillion to the national deficit.”

From Appropriations Committee Ranking Rosa DeLauro’s (D-CT-03) opening remarks:

“House Republicans’ Interior bill will raise costs for the struggling working class and middle class, damage our public lands, promote dirty energy, and threaten Americans health by leaving them vulnerable to polluted air and water. Because of this bill, families will pay more at the pump and on their utility bills thanks to deep cuts to funding for infrastructure and the removal of important fuel efficiency regulations...This bill will worsen Americans’ health by ending enforcement of numerous Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act regulations as well as hazardous waste and pesticides laws, and by allowing corporations to spew toxic pollution into our communities...And this bill slashes funding for National Parks and exploits our public lands for the sake of corporate profits. Americans cannot keep up with the ever-increasing cost of living, but instead of working with Democrats to make investments that can help lower their costs, protect our environment, and preserve our public lands and institutions, Republicans have put forward a bill that favors billionaires and corporations’ right to pollute and destroy the environment over the health and safety of the American people.”

A summary of the bill is here. A fact sheet is here. The text of the bill is here. Information on Community Project Funding in the bill is here.

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