Correction appended.

Measures that would block the Food and Drug Administration from approving genetically engineered salmon, bar funds being used for ethanol infrastructure and repeal the Dodd-Frank Act are among the amendments filed on the $128 billion appropriations "minibus" currently on the Senate floor.

Republicans may also try to strip all funding for ocean planning with a broad amendment that environmentalists say would send oceans management backward.

More than 40 amendments have been filed, most submitted by Republicans. But no deal has been reached by leadership yet on which amendments will be given votes. The "minibus" legislation includes a trio of spending bills that would set the fiscal 2012 budgets for the Agriculture Department; Commerce, Justice and Science; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) yesterday submitted what she calls her "Frankenfish Amendment," similar to a provision included in the House agriculture appropriations bill passed earlier this year. The measure would prohibit funds from being used by the Food and Drug Administration to approve applications for genetically engineered fish.

"There's no reason to believe that we'll be able to keep these genetically modified fish contained," Murkowski said at an Appropriations Committee markup on the bill earlier this year.

Murkowski and Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) have also filed amendments that would bar any funding for coastal and marine spatial planning, as defined in an executive order that President Obama signed last year.

The executive order put in motion a new National Ocean Policy, intended to address growing demands on the ocean for fishing, transportation, energy and recreation. It called for regional bodies across the United States to begin "coastal and marine spatial planning."

The planning effort seeks to gather scientific data, mapping resources and input from ocean stakeholders to provide a framework for activities at sea. But the effort has ignited concerns among some lawmakers, fishermen and other ocean users, who are concerned it will create a large federal bureaucracy that will essentially zone ocean waters.

The regional plans could potentially designate areas that are prime for offshore renewable energy development and set aside other areas that are vital fish habitat. The proposal won praise from conservation groups, marine scientists and some potential ocean developers, like wind energy companies.

The underlying appropriations bill does not meet the $6.8 million request from the Obama administration to fund coastal and marine spatial planning. The hesitance about the plan is bipartisan. At the committee's markup of the bill, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said she was worried the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration would become "the fisheries zoning commission."

The amendments from Murkowski and Vitter go one step further and bar the administration from using any of its funds on coastal and marine spatial planning.

Environmentalists are concerned the amendment could have far-reaching effects, potentially blocking funds for long-standing ocean planning activities related to National Marine Sanctuaries or under the Coastal Zone Management Act, as well as the new efforts under the National Ocean Policy.

Representatives from seven environmental groups -- including the Conservation Law Foundation, Pew Environment Group, Ocean Conservancy and World Wildlife Fund -- sent a letter today to the heads of the Appropriations and Commerce committees asking them to oppose the amendment. The letter says the amendment would "take modern ocean management backwards" and undercut ongoing state and federal efforts.

Ethanol

Environmental groups are in favor of an amendment filed by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that would bar any funds from the bill from being used to "construct, fund, install or operate an ethanol blender pump or an ethanol storage facility."

The amendment gets at an issue that has been controversial -- the use of funds from the farm bill's Rural Energy for America Program for installing blender pumps at rural gas stations. The program has traditionally been used to help rural landowners make energy efficiency improvements.

Friends of the Earth today circulated a letter in support of the McCain amendment.

"American taxpayers are struggling to pay their own bills -- they shouldn't be forced to foot the bill for big agribusiness too," FOE said in a statement. "Funding for ethanol infrastructure is wasteful for consumers and dangerous for the environment."

Other measures

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has also submitted an amendment that would limit some provisions of the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981, which prevents trafficking of illegally obtained plants and timber from foreign countries.

He also seeks to repeal the portion of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that sets an energy efficiency standard for incandescent and fluorescent lighting. That subtitle also requires the creation of a consumer awareness program over lighting efficiency and requires the Government Services Agency to use energy efficient lighting fixtures and bulbs in leased space.

Another offering by DeMint would repeal the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which has been under fire by Republicans because of delayed implementation and unclear proposed rules. The act would set limits on excessive speculation in the oil industry.

Another DeMint amendment would block FDA funding that would allow the agency to end the use of epinephrine inhalers by Dec. 31 of this year, as the agency announced it would do in a 2008 final rule. FDA found that there are enough non-ozone-depleting alternatives to the inhalers, which use chlorofluorocarbons, to end their use under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) also introduced an amendment that would strike language from the bill that would eliminate certain environmental requirements when reconstructing roads damaged by natural disasters or emergencies.

A separate amendment from McCain would block the use of federal transportation funds on scenic highways or other facilities. The language follows similar attacks on the "transportation enhancements" funding, which requires that a certain percentage of federal funds go to programs such as bike paths and pedestrian infrastructure. That requirement is expected to be stripped in an upcoming highway reauthorization bill.

Reporter Jason Plautz contributed.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly described the Murray amendment.