For the second year in a row Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) has lost his food fight over the use of polystyrene containers in House cafeterias.

Moran's amendment to the legislative branch spending bill, which sought to ban polystyrene foam in food service facilities in the House of Representatives, failed this morning 178-229 as the House passed its annual appropriations measure that funds members' office budgets, legislative branch agencies and everything that makes Congress run.

The House version of the overall bill -- which was passed by a vote of 307-102 -- totaled $3.3 billion and is $34 million, or 1 percent, below the fiscal 2012 spending measure. House appropriators found most of the savings by canceling the second phase of the ongoing Capitol Dome repair project (E&E Daily, May 22).

Among the amendments that were agreed to today was a measure to reduce the budget for the U.S. Botanic Garden by $1.2 million next year and bring the garden back to its fiscal 2009 funding level. The House also adopted a measure to keep funding for the Congressional Research Service at its fiscal 2012 level and another amendment to zero out funding for the Open World Leadership Center -- an exchange program for foreign officials.

The debate over polystyrene foam began when Republicans took over the House in January 2011 and rolled back some of the programs under former Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) Green the Capitol Initiative. The cafeteria's corn-based utensils and biodegradable containers were banished in favor of the cheapest options: polystyrene and plastic.

As he did last year, Moran today blasted polystyrene as a potential carcinogen and said that House cafeterias are lagging behind other cafeterias around the Capitol complex as well as most major fast-food restaurants, which no longer use the product.

"Removing polystyrene would show our concern for the health of visitors and our employees and for the future of our environment," Moran said today. "We should be using recyclable and biodegradable products. ... We should be leading by example."

House Administration Chairman Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), who helped institute the changes on the Hill last year, criticized Moran for condemning an industry that employs 50,000 Americans.

"The [Food and Drug Administration] has to approve use for sale of these products that come into human contact," Lungren said. "If it were carcinogenic, it would not be allowed."

As for Moran's recycling concerns, Lungren pointed out that the House has directed the vast majority of Congress' solid waste to be sent to a waste-to-energy company.

"We are not putting this into landfill; we are actually converting it," he said. Lungren also pointed out that the facility that was picked for the contract lies in Moran's district in Alexandria, Va.

But many environmentalists have not embraced the waste-to-energy process, arguing that it creates harmful emissions and detracts from truly renewable energy.

Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee member Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) called Moran's amendment "misguided and costly and a step backwards."

Calvert reminded Moran that under Pelosi's Greening the Capitol program, the House adopted a composting operation that used flimsy cardboard and paper products that increased the House's operating costs by half a million dollars.

"All for the luxury of using, remember, weak utensils that literally would melt in your soup," Calvert said. "If Mr. Moran would like to eliminate polystyrene in the House, he needs to be right up front with the American people and let them know how much this going to cost. This [polystyrene] product costs less and is a better product."

In presenting his amendment to keep the U.S. Botanic Garden's $12 million budget at its fiscal 2012 level, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) made it clear that while he appreciates the garden, which is just a block from the Capitol, and believes it is a good program, Congress is faced with difficult choices in the current fiscal environment.

"There are programs that are constitutionally mandated and other programs that are nice, but not constitutionally mandated," Gosar said. "This is one program that is nice, but it cannot be immune from the fiscal pressures facing our government."