House Republicans today released an appropriations bill that would cut close to 20 percent of U.S. EPA's budget, targeting high-profile programs such as state water revolving funds and the agency's efforts to combat climate change.

The House Appropriations Committee's fiscal 2013 bill includes $28 billion in funding for both EPA and the Interior Department, which would see a 1 percent increase from fiscal 2012 levels. Overall, the bill would trim 2012 amounts by $1.2 billion and is $1.7 billion below President Obama's budget request for the agencies included in the legislation.

Republicans cast the bill as their latest attempt to rein in regulatory "overreach," including programs aimed at mining operations and ocean policy.

"This bill cuts spending on programs by more than a billion dollars, and prevents the EPA and other federal bureaucracies from stepping out of their lane and stifling our economic recovery," Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said in a statement.

Appropriators are seeking to fund EPA at $7 billion, $1.4 billion less than 2012 levels. That would represent a 17 percent reduction and is below the amount appropriated to EPA in fiscal 1998.

It would cut money to the office of the EPA administrator by 30 percent and the agency's congressional affairs office by 50 percent.

"The bill reins in funding and out-of-control regulation at the EPA, and reduces overall spending for the third year in a row," said Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho). "We've made some difficult decisions in this bill -- decisions that will help reduce our budget deficit while funding many important agencies and programs at sustainable and appropriate levels."

EPA's marquee state water revolving funds would also take a sizable hit, with the clean water fund getting $689 million, nearly $780 million less than enacted levels, according to Democrats on the panel. Similarly, the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund would receive $829 million, an $89 million cut from current levels.

Democrats characterized the legislation as draconian and drew parallels to austerity programs in Europe that haven't led to an economic rebound.

"I find it incredibly unfortunate that House Republicans still haven't abandoned their contradictory 'cut and grow' economic agenda, though leading economists and even Mitt Romney has stated that drastic austerity in the near term would undermine our fragile economic recovery," said Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.), the Appropriations ranking member. "As we are witnessing in Europe, austerity is not working and shouldn't be replicated here."

At least three riders target potential water policies or regulations: One would block EPA from passing long-delayed "post-construction" stormwater rules, which would require new developments to manage their own rainfall runoff after construction. Another would prohibit the Obama administration from finalizing its proposed regulatory guidance that would provide Clean Water Act coverage to small streams and wetlands. A third would prohibit EPA from requiring stormwater runoff permits for logging roads.

Republicans also targeted EPA's actions to address climate change, cutting those programs by $101 million -- or nearly a third -- from current levels. The bill would require the administration to submit a detailed report on governmentwide activities related to climate change.

On air issues, the legislation prohibits the agency from setting air emissions standards for several air pollutants, including carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane, that come from the "biological processes associated with livestock production."

Similarly, the bill would prohibit EPA from requiring greenhouse gas emissions reporting for manure management systems.

Interior cuts

Interior Department cuts would fall heaviest to programs centered on environmental protection, conservation and land acquisition, climate change, and fish and wildlife protection.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund would be slashed 80 percent to $66 million -- the lowest level, Democrats said, since the program was established in 1965.

The Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey would bear the brunt of the cuts: FWS would be slashed $317 million, or 21 percent, to $1.2 billion. USGS would see its budget reduced $101 million, or 9.5 percent, to $967 million.

The National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management would face cuts of about 5 percent each. The funding for the Office of Surface Mining and Bureau of Indian Affairs would be roughly flat.

The heavy cutbacks at FWS would fall largely on the operations account, which would see a 15 percent reduction. Funding would be maintained for programs to combat invasive species and support mitigation fish hatcheries, while several "unauthorized" programs would be cut 50 percent, the committee said.

USGS reductions would hit programs dealing with climate change, ecosystems and administrative accounts, while others focused on energy and minerals, mapping, and water would be prioritized, GOP appropriators said.

NPS would receive $2.4 billion after its 5 percent cut, which includes reductions to the land acquisition account but, the committee said, protects the service against unit shutdowns, furloughs and layoffs of either full-time or seasonal employees.

OSM would see its funding unchanged at $150 million. The bill would maintain state grants at $69 million and "discourage the administration from imposing new fees on the industry," Republican appropriators said.

Finally, BIA would see $2.6 billion under the bill, a $37 million, or 1 percent, increase that includes money for federal contractual obligations to tribes under a recent Supreme Court ruling on tribal self-governance, according to the committee.

The Forest Service would receive $4.7 billion, or $86 million more than the current year and $169 million less than the administration's request. The bill would prohibit both the service and BLM from issuing new closures of public lands to hunting and recreational shooting, except in the case of public safety or extreme weather, the committee said.

As fires continue to ravage large swaths of Colorado, taking nearly 200 homes, funding for wildfire fighting and prevention would see a $6 million boost to $3.2 billion. That money would fund suppression costs for the Interior Department and Forest Service and includes $407 million for a reserve fund for fighting large-scale fires.

The bill also extends for one year the payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) program, which provides funds for rural local governments to help offset losses in property taxes due to nontaxable federal lands within their areas.

The authorization for PILT is set to expire Sept. 30, and without action, Republican committee leaders said, "many rural communities will be left with huge budget shortfalls that could impact public safety, education and other local government responsibilities."

Mining and coal

The spending bill would block funding for the implementation of what has become one of the most controversial Obama administration proposals dealing with the coal industry -- the Office of Surface Mining's forthcoming stream protection rule. Critics say the rule could cost thousands of jobs, a claim the administration denies.

The bill would leave OSM funding at the current level of about $150 million, more than the president's proposed $140.7 million fiscal 2013 request. It would also maintain OSM grants to states at $69 million and discourage new industry fees. The White House had proposed to cut grants and called for at least $3.4 million in new fees.

The GOP spending bill also aims to rein in EPA's enhanced oversight of mountaintop removal mining permits, a top priority of Rogers.

Riders that are absent in the spending bill but could come up later in the process include prohibitions on EPA regulating coal ash as hazardous, scrapping the administration's new mining limits around the Grand Canyon and planned financial assurance requirements for hardrock mining.

Another shot at the National Ocean Policy

The proposal would block funding for the Obama administration's National Ocean Policy -- firing another shot against the beleaguered effort to create a National Ocean Council and support new regional ocean management plans.

House lawmakers approved an amendment last month to block funding for the policy in the Commerce, Justice and Science bill. But GOP opponents of the administration effort, led by Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), have called for all appropriations bills to carry a similar rider. They have said they hope to include riders against the effort on all the spending bills, since the ocean council's work reaches across 27 different agencies of the federal government.

Obama signed an executive order last summer creating a National Ocean Council, which is charged with developing a plan to streamline management of national waters and coasts and strike a balance among energy development, fishing, shipping and recreation.

While numerous industry and environmental groups support the policy, it has been sharply criticized by Republicans who say it will add another layer of bureaucracy and could have far-reaching implications on land management.

The rider in the Interior-Environment draft is a far-reaching attempt to block all progress on the policy. It says that none of the funds available could be used to "develop, propose, finalize, administer or implement the National Ocean Policy." The rider also calls for a report from the White House detailing all federal spending from the past two years on development of the policy.

Deerin Babb-Brott, the new director of the National Ocean Council office, has said it would be a challenge to try to stop all work related to the National Ocean Policy across the government (E&E Daily, May 10).

Gray wolves

The bill includes a number of riders that would advance some GOP policy priorities.

It would require the Interior Department to issue a final determination on gray wolves within 60 days of enactment of the act. The agency has proposed removing Endangered Species Act protections for the wolves.

Another rider seeks to put a nail in the coffin of the Obama administration's already-abandoned "wild lands" initiative. It would block the administration from funding the wilderness development program, but Interior already announced last year that it would not pursue the policy in the face of intense political pressure (E&E News PM, June 1, 2011). The 2010 policy would have allowed agency managers to protect wilderness-quality areas from the impacts of oil and gas development and off-highway vehicle use.

Another rider in the bill expands on a previous effort Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) made to try to protect herding on public lands. It would prohibit agencies from reducing sheep herding on public lands after an Idaho court ruled the Forest Service had misinterpreted a similar fiscal 2012 rider (E&E Daily, June 14).

The legislation brings back a frequent congressional debate over whether the Interior Department should be allowed to kill excess wild horses on public lands. A rider would block funding for the destruction of wild horses and burros under the Bureau of Land Management's care or sales of the animals for destruction and processing into commercial products.

Reporters Manuel Quinones and Allison Winter contributed.

Click here to read the bill.