The House approved a bipartisan package of six final fiscal 2024 spending bills Wednesday that would bolster the Department of Energy while slashing budgets at EPA and the Department of the Interior.
After months of acrimony and delays, Democrats and Republicans ultimately teamed up to send the $459 billion minibus to the Senate on a 339-85 roll call. Wednesday’s passage cleared what was expected to be the biggest hurdle in averting a partial government shutdown this weekend.
The bill’s funding allocations could have far-reaching impacts on the Biden administration’s energy and environment programs. It proposes an increase to DOE by $1.8 billion above current levels while cutting EPA by nearly $1 billion and reducing funding for a range of Interior bureaus.
House passage comes one day before President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address and two days before the scheduled release of the president’s fiscal 2025 budget proposal.
