NOAA would be prohibited from spending any money to implement its controversial plans to protect endangered whales, under a bill passed by a House panel Wednesday.
House Republican appropriators also released spending bills that would block transportation climate initiatives and rules to protect miners.
On a voice vote, the House Appropriations Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee approved a spending bill for fiscal 2025 that would block NOAA from aiding the North Atlantic right whale in waters off the Atlantic coast and the Rice’s whale in the Gulf of Mexico.
NOAA has proposed two major rule changes: imposing speed limits on more boaters to prevent boating collisions with the right whales and designating 28,000 square miles of the Gulf as critical habitat to help the Rice’s whale.
