Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies (114th Congress)
[[{"fid":"106","view_mode":"congress_small","fields":{"format":"congress_small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Rep. Betty McCollum","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Rep. Betty McCollum"},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"congress_small","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Rep. Betty McCollum","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":"Rep. Betty McCollum"}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"alt":"Rep. Betty McCollum","title":"Rep. Betty McCollum","height":"160","width":"160","style":"float: left;","class":"media-element file-congress-small","data-delta":"1"}}]]Betty McCollum (MN), Ranking Member
Chellie Pingree (ME)
Derek Kilmer (WA)
Marcy Kaptur (OH)
Jurisdiction
Department of the Interior (Except Bureau of Reclamation and Central Utah Project)
Environmental Protection Agency
Other Agencies
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (HHS)
Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board
Commission of Fine Arts
Council on Environmental Quality and Office of Environmental Quality
Forest Service (USDA)
Indian Health Service
Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
National Capital Planning Commission
National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities (Except Institute of Museum and Library Services)
National Gallery of Art
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (HHS, formerly EPA/Superfund)
Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation
Presidio Trust
Smithsonian Institution
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Eisenhower Memorial Commission
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
I would like to thank the Chairman and his staff for their open and collaborative approach. This subcommittee has a challenging portfolio of issues and I commend the Chairman’s efforts to find solutions in another difficult budget year.
The majority’s failure to adopt a budget resolution and its piecemeal approach to the subcommittees’ 302(b) allocations made this year’s work even more difficult. Moreover, such a lack of transparency has placed the entire Committee at a disadvantage and pushed us further from regular order.
The FY 2017 subcommittee allocation is $64 million less than the fiscal year 2016 enacted level. This means the needs of many important programs vital to protecting our nation’s natural and cultural resources will not be met as they far outpace a stagnant allocation.
The 2016 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill would place the health and safety of the American people at risk by slashing critical funding for drinking water and sanitary sewer infrastructure, climate change, and environmental enforcement. Ideological policy riders continue the assault on our environment by undermining the Administration's ability to keep our land, water, and air clean and protect threatened species.
Highlights of 2016 Interior and Environment Appropriations Act
2016 bill: $30.170 billion
2016 budget request: $32.208 billion
2015 enacted: $30.416 billion
The 2016 Interior Appropriations bill would provide:
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
I want to begin by commending our Chairman for the sincere and collaborative manner in which he has carried out his duties while laboring under an inadequate allocation. Chairman Calvert chaired 14 budget hearings where we received testimony from nearly 150 witnesses. I greatly appreciated the Chairman's willingness to hear from so many agency and citizen voices.
Let me also express my appreciation to the subcommittee staff on the minority and majority sides for their hard work during another difficult budget year.
I'd like to thank Chairmen Calvert and Rogers, as well as my good friend, Betty McCollum, in her first full committee markup as Ranking Member.
While I appreciate the chairman's willingness to accommodate some Democratic priorities, this is the latest in a series of bills that drastically shortchanges job- creating investments and vital environmental protections while carrying a wish list of special interest giveaways that hurt hardworking American families' health and safety.
The President proposed to end sequestration through more reasonable and realistic budgeting four months ago, but Republicans have yet to engage on finding a workable solution. How much longer do we have to play this charade before the committee writes bills that could be enacted?
Refusing to adopt a sufficient overall allocation for discretionary investments has led to a bill that severely underfunds far too many priorities.
Secretary Jewell, I join with Chairman Calvert in welcoming you to the subcommittee today. I appreciate that you and Deputy Secretary Connor are here to provide insight into the fiscal year 2016 budget request for the Department of the Interior and to answer any questions we may have.
Madam Secretary, as I look over the budget request for the department, I see a budget that recognizes the responsibility that all of us have to be good stewards of our federal lands and the natural and historical resources they contain.
I am pleased that the budget request builds upon the bipartisan commitment that this subcommittee has had to further the social and economic well-being of Native Americans, especially in the area of Indian Education.