The House on Wednesday will take its first step toward passing a bill funding the Interior Department and U.S. EPA for fiscal 2013, a subcommittee vote that will likely spark another rancorous debate over spending cuts and policy riders.

The House last summer ultimately abandoned floor consideration of its fiscal 2012 spending bill as lawmakers battled over GOP proposals to handcuff EPA air regulations, limit Clean Water Act enforcement and overturn mining restrictions at the Grand Canyon, among many others.

Funding cuts will continue to split parties this year, as the Republican in charge of EPA and Interior appropriations must keep his bill $1.2 billion below the levels that both parties agreed to in December's omnibus spending deal.

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) last month said the practical effect of the cut is closer to $2 billion, given the need to cover spending elsewhere, meaning several agency programs could be slimmed significantly (E&E Daily, May 11).

Simpson, who chairs the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, last month also said he did not believe the chamber has enough time to consider all 12 appropriations bills before the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30. In such case, Simpson's bill would likely be negotiated directly with the Senate as part of a final fiscal 2013 spending package, but that may not happen until after the election.

While last year's House Interior-EPA bill contained dozens of policy riders, Simpson said he has asked colleagues to exercise restraint.

"We're trying to limit the amount" of proposed restrictions to Interior and EPA programs that are attached to the fiscal 2013 bill, he said, "but there will be some. There will be some that are controversial, to be sure."

One rider Simpson already has committed to revisiting would block EPA from implementing or enforcing its proposed guidance policy to expand federal Clean Water Act jurisdiction over seemingly isolated streams and wetlands.

Another rider that Republicans plan to fight for this summer would stop Interior's Office of Surface Mining from moving ahead with a stream protection rule aimed at limiting pollution from mountaintop-removal mining.

Wildlife species may also be targeted as Wyoming's delegation fights for language that would provide legal safeguards for a pending agreement with Interior to remove Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves.

Simpson may also clarify or extend a rider prohibiting agencies from reducing sheep herding on public lands after an Idaho court ruled the Forest Service had misinterpreted his fiscal 2012 rider (E&E Daily, June 14).

Lawmakers in timber-dependent states may also look to extend a provision in the fiscal 2012 bill that prohibited EPA from requiring permits for stormwater runoff from forest roads.

Schedule: The markup is Wednesday, June 20, at 1 p.m. in B-308 Rayburn.