Omnibus Spending Package Offers Mixed Bag of Environmental Funding

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congress is voting on a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill for fiscal year 2023, which would fund the government through September 2023. The bill will provide much-needed increases in funding for environmental agencies and programs, and it will help protect frontline communities by again blocking legislation that would rubber-stamp the Mountain Valley Pipeline and weaken critical environmental safeguards. At the same time, it is sorely lacking in funding to promote lands conservation and wildlife protections.

Highlights of the spending bill include: 

• $5 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
• $600 million for repairing water infrastructure in Jackson, Mississippi
• A $576 million increase to EPA funding, including increases for enforcement and toxics and clean air programs
• $100 million for brownfields restoration and $1.3 billion for Superfund sites
• Inclusion of the Safeguarding Treatment for the Restoration of Ecosystems from Abandoned Mines (STREAM) Act to address the ongoing acid mine drainage crisis in coal communities and new funding to improve and modernize facility energy use at HBCU and minority-serving institutions 
• A nearly 9 percent increase for the Diesel Emissions Reduction program
• Reforming the Electoral Count Act of 1887

However, Congressional Republicans withheld funding for key programs and forced the inclusion of harmful provisions that will hamper efforts to support conservation and will jeopardize the country’s international climate leadership. Some harmful riders will have devastating impacts on forests and endangered species, including sage grouse and North Atlantic right whales. Moreover, it does not include the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which would have preserved wildlife and their habitat, or the Outdoors for All Act, which would have improved nature access nationwide. On the international side, the package is far short of the President’s commitment to international climate finance, and includes no contribution to the Green Climate Fund.

In response, Sierra Club Lands Protection Program Director Athan Manuel released the following statement:

“Thanks to Democratic leadership in Congress, the fiscal year 2023 omnibus spending package includes crucial increases in funding for climate and clean energy programs, which together could get us closer to creating a future that is safe and healthy for all. The Dirty Deal legislation that has been denied yet again is a huge victory for environmental justice and frontline communities. We also applaud the bipartisan effort to pass urgent reforms to the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which could make another January 6th insurrection far more difficult to carry out.

“Unfortunately, Congressional Republicans refuse to take action to protect our climate and environment, and they prevented this bill from meeting the moment to defend vulnerable species and at-risk public lands and waters. Thanks to the GOP, support for international action on climate change is woefully inadequate, greatly increasing the risks that Americans face in a hotter world. The bill will also increase threats to the land and marine wildlife that leaders pledged to protect at COP15 earlier this week. Without additional action, critical wildlife habitats will continue to be destroyed, vulnerable species could be pushed to extinction, and the lands and waters that make up this country will be open to exploitation and extraction by Big Polluters. 

“Funding the government is one of the essential responsibilities of Congress, but significantly more investments are needed to address the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis and its effects that disproportionately harm frontline communities. We look forward to working with the Biden administration to support investments in programs that will strengthen our democracy, secure our clean energy future, and protect the health, lands, water, and air of all communities.”