GOP funding targets EPA, net neutrality, ACA, but CDC & NIH are winners
The Hill
SLASHING BUDGETS, STOPPING RULES:
Republicans in both chambers moved bills Tuesday to cut the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) budget and block several of its new regulations.
In the House, the Appropriations Committee approved an Interior and Environment spending bill that would cut the agency's budget by $718 million next year. The bill would block a new EPA rule asserting power over small waterways and its upcoming greenhouse gas regulations for power plants. Members also included a provision blocking a new ground-level ozone pollution rule.
"This administration has been hell-bent on implementing all sorts of regulations that are harmful to both our economy and our energy security," Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the committee chairman, said. "Bill-wide, we have included several important policy provisions aimed to stop this sort of overzealous bureaucratic red tape."
Also Tuesday, members of the Senate Appropriations Committee's interior and environment subcommittee approved their spending bill for next year. The bill promises to block several EPA rules and cut funding for the Department of Interior and environment programs even deeper than the House does.
"This bill aggressively deals with the EPA's regulatory overreach on both the funding end and the sensible policy provisions," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), chairwoman of the subcommittee responsible for writing the bill.
Democrats in both the House and Senate slammed the bills, and the Office of Management and Budget said the White House opposed the policy riders and low funding levels in the House's legislation.
Read more about the House bill here: http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/245137-house-panel-approves-3017b-bill-to-cut-epa-funds-block-climate
Read more about the Senate bill here: http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/245167-senate-gop-moves-against-obamas-climate-water-rules-through
Overnight Technology: Funding bill takes aim at net neutrality
LEDE: House appropriators will take up a measure Wednesday to bar the Federal Communications Commission from enforcing its net neutrality rules until a court battle is settled.
The House Appropriations Committee will consider the provision as part of a much broader Financial Service and General Government appropriations bill that includes funding for multiple agencies including the Internal Revenue Service, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission and others.
The bill also proposes allotting $73 million less than what the FCC requested for fiscal 2016. As another transparency measure, it would require the agency to publicly post proposed rules 21 days before any future vote -- a point of contention during the net neutrality debate.
The provisions would likely make the bill unpalatable for Democrats and President Obama, who pressed for the strong Internet regulations that took effect Friday. More than 60 advocates sent a letter Wednesday to lawmakers on the committee urging them to remove the provision blocking net neutrality rules.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last week declined to delay the rules until the broader court battle is settled. Public Knowledge, which supports the rules, said the initial victory last week would dissuade Democrats from striking any legislative deal. "This could either prompt Republicans to sweeten their offer, or double down on efforts for total repeal," wrote Harold Feld, senior vice president for the group.
(no link provided)
Overnight Healthcare: CDC, NIH win big in spending bill
House Republicans on Tuesday rolled out a spending bill for the Obama administration's health department that falls $4 billion short of its request.
But Republicans are offering a funding boost in two key areas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the wake of last fall's Ebola crisis.
Both agencies became flashpoints during Congress's Ebola battle last year, when both parties tried to point fingers at what prompted the disease to spread to the U.S. for the first time.
"It showed us how important it is, how rapidly things can change," Rep. Tom Cole, who oversees the Appropriations health subcommittee, said Tuesday of the short-lived Ebola threat.
"[Those agencies] need to be as robustly funded in terms of what they think is necessary as you'd fund the American military," he said.
Funding at the NIH which has been a bipartisan priority ( http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/240834-push-to-boost-medical-research-gains-traction ) despite the added complication of budget caps would grow by $1.1 billion under the bill. That's $100 million above Obama's request.
The CDC's funding would increase by $140 million, equal to Obama's request.
Read more here: http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/245180-cdc-nih-are-winners-in-healthcare-spending-bill
SPENDING BILL ALSO TARGETS OBAMACARE:
The newly unveiled appropriations bill also blocks funds from being used to "implement, administer, enforce, or further any provision of" ObamaCare.
The bill cannot end ObamaCare's subsidies that help people afford insurance, because that is so-called mandatory spending not subject to the annual appropriations process.
But the salaries of the employees who run ObamaCare are paid from the bill, and it blocks them from administering the law. Whether the bill will ever make it into law is increasingly in doubt. Democrats have threatened to block the appropriations bills in a bid to get Republicans to negotiate on lifting the spending caps set in 2011.
Read more here.
http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/245122-gop-unveils-spending-bill-that-targets-obamacare
