Expected passage of the stop-gap spending bill means lawmakers will have until Nov. 21 to resolve differences over House-approved restrictions on EPA deregulatory measures.
Rejecting Trump administration efforts to eliminate EPA regional program, the House transportation committee in a strong bipartisan vote has approved several bills to create new or reauthorize existing programs focused on regional waterbodies, seeking to provide Puget Sound and the San Francisco Bay with focused attention like the Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes.
“It is urgent that Congress pursue all avenues to reduce carbon pollution and address climate change, including through direct federal spending,” the Democratic-leaning group says in a new report.
EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has found that former agency chief Scott Pruitt increased the use of a special statutory provision to hire “administratively determined” (AD) staff, in part to speed the hiring of political appointees, though the OIG says the shift did not exceed the agency’s authority.
A coalition is asking 2020 presidential candidates to commit to increased funding and enforcement to address clean water and drinking water issues in the region.
States are reluctantly accepting EPA’s proposal to delay by up to two years the rollout of an enhanced air monitoring network required under an Obama-era regulation, a move that the agency says is because states are not fully prepared to implement the network but that states say is due to inadequate EPA funds to assist them.
The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee appears likely to move a legislative package, perhaps by the end of the year, to reauthorize several related EPA estuary restoration programs.
House Democrats have approved fiscal year 2020 spending legislation for EPA and other agencies that includes numerous provisions blocking Trump administration environmental rollbacks, though it is far from clear whether the provisions will survive negotiations with the GOP-controlled Senate and the White House.
