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The GOP-controlled U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved a budget bill on July 17 that would reduce the Environmental Protection Agency’s funding to its lowest level since 1991. In a party-line vote, the FY24 EPA appropriations bill would reduce the agency’s budget by nearly $4 billion, or 39 percent, from FY23 spending.
The funding bill also included a committee report with language supported by many in the agriculture community, including: repealing the Biden Administration’s WOTUS rule, currently being rewritten in wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Sackett decision; preventing EPA from issuing final regulations setting conditions on the use of rodenticides; and directing EPA to rewrite its rule of plant-incorporated protectants (PIPs) derived from gene editing, which National Potato Council has opposed for being too onerous.
The bill now goes to the full House for consideration. Observers predict the cuts are unlikely to survive the full appropriations process in the Senate.
SOURCE: NATIONAL POTATO COUNCIL
