Virginia Republican Bob Goodlatte will try to slash funding for U.S. EPA's Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort with three amendments to the House's Interior-EPA 2012 appropriations bill being debated on the House floor.

It is not clear which, if any, of the three amendments would get votes, and Goodlatte's office did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.

The amendments would prohibit EPA from using funds "to take regulatory or backstop actions" to carry out the cleanup launched in 2009 by President Obama. The program aims to force states to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment washing into the bay from farms and cities.

The program seeks to reverse a steep, long-term decline in the bay's sea grasses, fish and shellfish. The estuary is on track this summer to suffer its largest-ever "dead zone," an oxygen-deprived area devoid of aquatic life.

Goodlatte won support for a similar amendment, when the House voted to include it in a spending bill intended to carry the federal government through the end of this fiscal year. The measure failed to become law.

Environmentalists blasted Goodlatte's proposal.

"Everything is lined up to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, except for one thing: The polluters want to continue with business as usual," Chesapeake Bay Foundation President William Baker said in a statement. "Congressman Goodlatte's amendment will allow polluters to continue harming his own district's beautiful Shenandoah River, and the entire Chesapeake Bay, widely recognized as a national treasure."