As the House tees up its next votes on government spending for fiscal 2013, Democrats and greens are bracing for a punishing hit to U.S. EPA and the Interior Department before Republicans likely ultimately accede to the higher funding cap that carries bipartisan support in the Senate.

The fatalism that shrouds the House appropriations process crept into the open yesterday as Republicans pushed through a plan to replace $55 billion in projected Pentagon cuts set to take effect in January with slashes to domestic programs -- the same pot of spending in line for its own $55 billion cut come 2013.

Under the levels dictated by House leaders, the Republican in charge of EPA and Interior Department appropriations must keep his bill $1.2 billion below the levels that both parties agreed to in December's omnibus spending deal. But Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) yesterday described the practical effect of the cut as closer to $2 billion, given the need to cover spending elsewhere. That means several Interior and EPA programs and offices could see additional belt-tightening, Simpson said.

House Appropriations ranking member Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) have both worried about the GOP strategy of adequately funding early appropriations bills, saying it means bills later in the process -- likely including Interior-EPA -- would suffer.

Hoyer predicted this week that Republicans would advance "noncontroversial bills first," with enough funding that "they are not going to have enough left over" under their lower cap to adequately address more politically charged agencies.

"What appears to be happening is, the early appropriations bills are borrowing money from the later appropriations bills," Natural Resources Defense Council Legislative Director Scott Slesinger said in an interview.

Contrasted with a Senate-side Interior-EPA spending cap that adds $400 million to the current fiscal year's levels, the House vision promises austerity at EPA almost as acute as the $1.5 billion cut that Republicans proposed in their initial Interior-EPA spending bill last year.

That measure was pulled from the floor in the dog days of summer as congressional leaders neared a bipartisan accord with the White House on raising the debt ceiling and setting a $1.047 trillion discretionary spending limit for fiscal 2013. But after the House GOP slashed below that cap this year, seeking $19 billion in more cuts, President Obama's party and its green allies can do little but shrug at a strategy already running aground in the Senate.

Ultimately, Slesinger predicted, "the House and Senate will agree to" the spending numbers set by last year's debt deal, effectively leaving Interior and EPA with $400 million more to work with than they have this year.

All but two Senate Republican appropriators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), voted for the higher cap last month. Also among that group was Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.), who declined to embrace the House GOP spending levels yesterday.

"There's a strong bipartisan majority that's working to reduce spending in line with the Budget Control Act," Hoeven said in an interview taped for C-SPAN's "Newsmakers," using the formal name for the August debt agreement.

"The good news is that Republican senators ... essentially endorsed the level agreed to in the BCA," Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the Budget Committee's top Democrat, said in an interview.

Asked if the EPA could see its funding crunched by the House after other priorities are addressed first, Van Hollen said: "We have to keep an eye on all those issues."

Even traditionally unobjectionable spending bills could languish without House floor votes given the shortage of time to address them before the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year. Rep. Tom Latham (R-Iowa), in charge of the Transportation Department's appropriations, simply laughed this week when asked about his bill's time frame for consideration.

Simpson predicted yesterday that either the Energy Department and Army Corps of Engineers spending bill for fiscal 2013 or the homeland security spending measure could be next in line for a House floor vote. And Simpson acknowledged that his bill would "never get to the floor" because of the dwindling window for floor time.

"The reality is, the calendar just doesn't work in our favor that way," Simpson said (E&ENews PM, May 10).

Reporters Jason Plautz and Phil Taylor contributed.