House appropriators this week will mark up a proposed spending bill that would slash U.S. EPA's budget in fiscal 2013 by about a fifth and make significant reductions in spending for related agencies for fiscal 2013.

The House Appropriations Committee will meet Wednesday to take up the $28 billion spending bill for EPA, the Interior Department and related agencies after the Interior-EPA subpanel approved the measure last week.

Though EPA would face many cuts, funding for the Interior Department under the proposal would remain roughly the same, ticking up by 1 percent.

Republicans have touted the measure as an effort to rein in what they view as overregulation. The proposal contains measures targeting EPA's climate change, air, water and mountaintop-mining rules and would slash the agency's budget by 17 percent to $7 billion.

Democrats have lambasted the proposal but so far have yet to offer amendments to it. Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Interior-EPA subpanel, said last week that the cuts "affect almost every program."

Interior-EPA subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said the bill makes "very difficult choices," but added that he expects additional riders to defund controversial programs will come at the full committee markup and on the House floor (E&E Daily, June 21).

The bill would make significant cuts to EPA's Clean Water and Drinking Water state revolving funds, popular programs that help states make infrastructure upgrades. It also takes aim at climate change programs, cutting their funding by nearly a third, and targets EPA's recent proposal to limit greenhouse gases from power plants for the first time.

The Fish and Wildlife Service would see a cut of 21 percent under the proposal, and the U.S. Geological Survey budget would be slashed by nearly 10 percent. Moreover, the Land and Water Conservation Fund would be cut by 80 percent to 1968 levels.

The proposal would also block funding for the Obama administration's National Ocean Policy and force the Interior Department to make a final ruling on whether to remove Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves (E&ENews PM, June 19).

Schedule: The markup is Wednesday, June 27, at 10 a.m. in Rayburn 2359.