By the SEMA Washington, D.C., office.,
The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would significantly reduce the budgets of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for fiscal year (FY) 2025.
If H.R. 8998, the "Department of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025" becomes law, it will cut DOI's budget by $677 million and EPA's budget by $4 billion, compared to their FY 2024 levels. The legislation includes SEMA-supported amendments that would prevent the EPA from implementing new federal emissions standards for motor vehicles for model years 2027 to 2032, which are designed to heavily promote sales of electric vehicles (EVs). The bill would also force the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to withdraw its "Conservation and Landscape Health" regulation.
The BLM regulation would allow the agency to lease lands under new and vaguely defined conservation leases; incorporate new standards when evaluating traditional multiple-use decisions; expedite designations of new Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACECs); and apply land health standards to all public lands. The new regulation undermines the Federal Land Policy and Management Act's multiple-use requirement for BLM lands as it would hinder access to public lands for recreation. SEMA has submitted comments opposing both the EPA and BLM rulemakings.
The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee recently passed its own bill to fund DOI and EPA in FY 2025, albeit at significantly higher levels than the House bill. The Senate bill would increase DOI funding by $13 million and DOI funding by over $1 billion more than FY 2024 levels. While the Senate version of the Interior and EPA funding legislation does include some policy riders, it does not include the SEMA-supported amendments that made it into the bill passed by the House of Representatives.
Congress must pass 13 appropriations bills for FY 2025 by October 1, 2024, or pass legislation to continue government funding at FY 2024 levels to avoid a government shutdown.
For more information, contact Eric Snyder at erics@sema.org.