Correction appended.

A Senate subcommittee today released a draft bill to fund the Interior Department, Forest Service and U.S. EPA at $29.7 billion in fiscal 2013, a 1.7 percent increase over current levels and about on par with the Obama administration's request.

The bill, which was released days after Congress passed a continuing resolution keeping the government funded through the end of March, comes as lawmakers return to their districts for the campaign season and aren't expected to rumble over spending for several months.

The bill, which would restore funding to EPA's clean water programs, establish new inspection fees for onshore oil and gas drillers, and designate new wilderness in Montana, among other provisions, will become the basis for negotiations with House lawmakers who in midsummer advanced a markedly different bill that would cut EPA funding by 17 percent and significantly reduce Interior wildlife, climate change and land acquisition funding (Greenwire, June 28).

The House bill would fund all the agencies at $28 billion in fiscal 2013, in line with a House budget plan that flouts a bicameral spending agreement reached more than a year ago.

"While Congress has passed a short-term continuing resolution, we hope this final draft document will serve as a roadmap as discussions continue to finalize a responsible, balanced fiscal year 2013 appropriations bill," Sens. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chairman of the Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the panel's ranking member, said in a statement. "We will continue working together, with our colleagues and our House counterparts, to turn this draft into law."

For Interior, the bill would provide $10.5 billion, a 1.6 percent increase over current funding levels and about $24 million above the administration's request.

EPA would see a small boost in funding under the bill, which would provide $8.5 billion, up $66 million from current funding levels and $171 million more than the Obama administration's request for fiscal 2013.

It also would provide $378 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a 17 percent bump over current levels and a significant increase over the House plan, which would cut the program roughly 80 percent.

The nearly 50-year-old program, which uses oil and gas revenues to purchase new public lands and easements to conserve private lands, is a top priority for conservation groups, sportsmen and the Obama administration, which requested $450 million.

Interior

The bill would raise about $48 million in new inspection fees for oil and gas wells on public lands -- as the president requested -- while mandating new wilderness and logging in Montana and establishing a new $1 monthly fee to graze livestock on public lands, a proposal likely to rile some Western Republicans. It would also triple the amount of time Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is allowed to review exploration plans for offshore drilling, a proposal the Obama administration backed after the Deepwater Horizon disaster but one that is strongly opposed by oil-state lawmakers.

The Interior bill would provide $2.6 billion for the National Park Service, about the same as current funding levels and on par with the administration's request.

The Fish and Wildlife Service, which oversees the nation's wildlife refuges and protection of endangered species, would receive $1.4 billion, about a $60 million boost over the administration's request but $70 million below current levels.

Funding for the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, a key priority for sportsmen and conservation groups, would remain roughly level, as would state and tribal wildlife grants and cooperative endangered species conservation.

The Bureau of Land Management would receive $1.1 billion, a slight dip below current funding and the president's request.

Alan Rowsome, director of conservation funding for the Wilderness Society, praised the increase in LWCF funding, which he argued will protect national parks, wildlife refuges, battlefields and urban outdoor opportunities.

"As the nation's premier land protection program, LWCF has strong bipartisan support and is a proven economic generator in local communities across the country," he said this morning in an email. "The Senate's recommended level helps put it on a path to fuller, more robust funding."

For the third year in a row, the Senate proposal includes a bill by Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) to designate significant new wilderness and set minimum quotas for restoration logging. The bill enjoys broad support in the state from conservationists, loggers and many state officials but is opposed by some ranchers, off-road vehicle users and miners.

Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), who is challenging Tester for his Senate seat, has doggedly opposed the measure and claimed credit for killing it the last time the two chambers met to iron out a spending bill.

The Interior bill also again contains a title to designate a John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Historical Park in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, a key legislative priority of Reed that was stripped from the chamber's 2012 spending bill during negotiations with the House.

The Senate's proposal would cut the Office of Surface Mining's budget, already cash-strapped according to administration leaders, by about $10 million, from a 2012 appropriation of $150 million to $140.6 million. OSM is the country's top coal mining regulator.

However, the draft spending bill would include a small increase -- about $113,000 -- for the abandoned mine reclamation fund, from a 2012 appropriation of $27.4 million to more than $27.5 million.

Absent from the proposal is any effort to block OSM's stream protection rule, Interior's mining limits around the Grand Canyon or a planned merger of various agency functions within that department.

EPA

The bill most sharply parts ways with the administration's proposal when it comes to infrastructure spending assistance to states and tribes, which would receive $380.9 million more under the bill compared with the Obama budget request.

The bulk of this increase would go to benefit the popular Clean Water State Revolving Fund, which helps states finance upgrades to aging, failing wastewater and drinking water systems. The bill would provide $1.5 billion for the fund, an increase of $291 million compared with the administration's request.

The administration drew fire from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in February when it proposed a combined 15 percent cut to Clean Water and Drinking Water state revolving funds. The bill would provide $917.9 million for the drinking water fund, up from the $850 million requested amount (E&E Daily, Feb. 14).

Other grant programs did not fare as well, however. Categorical grant programs would receive a total of just more than $1 billion in the Senate bill, down 10 percent compared with the president's request.

A few grant programs would see their funding restored. EPA's beach protection program, for example, would be zeroed out in the president's budget but would receive its current funding level of $9.9 million under the Senate measure. EPA's brownfield grant program would also see a small bump, $49.3 million compared with $47.6 million in the budget. But the increase is offset with a cut to brownfield program funding elsewhere in the budget.

The bill expands on cuts the administration had already proposed to EPA's Superfund hazardous waste cleanup program, which would have receive $33 million less under the budget proposal than last year. The Senate bill would cut $87.2 million from the program compared with current levels, providing a total of $1.27 billion.

Obama asked for $306.9 million for clean air and climate programs, and they would receive $6 million less than that under the Senate bill. The measure also would trim his request for science at EPA from $807.3 million to $798.8 million.

Overall, the Senate bill would provide substantially more funding for EPA than the one put forward by House appropriators, which would cut EPA funding 17 percent -- dropping it to spending levels last seen in 1998. The House bill would provide $7 billion for EPA, a frequent target of GOP criticism. The chamber's bill, which has cleared the House Appropriations Committee but has not received a vote on the floor, includes numerous policy riders that would bar EPA from regulating greenhouse gases, mercury and other emissions.

Reporters Manuel Quinones and Annie Snider contributed.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the amount of funding the Senate bill would provide for EPA's Superfund hazardous waste cleanup program.