This week, the House Republican leadership upped the ante on their already unprecedented assault on our nation's bedrock environmental laws. It is no exaggeration to call the Interior and Environment spending bill the single worst attack we have ever seen on our air, land, water and wildlife.
This spending bill contains more than three dozen anti-environment policy measures that have absolutely no place in a budget measure, won't save the country a penny and are nothing more than giveaways to various special interest polluters.
The egregious policy provisions include measures that -- if enacted into law -- would threaten Americans' lives and well-being by blocking limits on harmful air pollution, increase pollution in sources of drinking water for 117 million Americans, cause animal and plant species to become extinct by denying them Endangered Species Act protections, and threaten the iconic Grand Canyon with toxic pollution from uranium mining. And these are just a handful of the dirty and dangerous provisions included in this legislation.
While we recognize that some spending cuts are necessary to reduce our federal deficit, the cuts in this particular legislation would have a devastating impact on Americans' health and environment. Those cuts include budget reductions of 18 percent for the EPA, a staggering 80 percent for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and 21 percent for the Fish and Wildlife Service.
As if the underlying bill weren't harmful enough, we expect members of Congress to offer anti-environmental amendments on the floor that would wreak even greater havoc on Americans' health and environment and keep us dependent on expensive and dangerous energy sources.
Fortunately, President Obama has threatened to veto this harmful legislation, noting that a number of the measures in the bill are "ideological and political provisions that are beyond the scope of funding legislation." However, we will not let House Republican leaders push this legislation without a fight. We will continue to work at every turn to expose these extreme anti-environment efforts to the public and constituents back home.
Click here to urge your Member of Congress to reject this unprecedented assault on our air, water, lands and wildlife.
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