House Panel Weakens Protections for Clean Air, Water

WASHINGTON (July 15, 2014) —The House Appropriations Interior and Environment Committee today pushed through a flawed spending bill that would seriously undermine the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to protect the public from breathing dirty air and drinking polluted water.

The following is a statement from Franz Matzner, associate director of government affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council:

“Yet again, House Republicans are trying to gut the Environmental Protection Agency. They also want to derail work to curb unlimited power plant carbon pollution and to protect our oceans, wildlife and waterways.

“The Republicans’ ideological agenda leads to two bad choices ahead: Put government programs on autopilot through a Continuing Resolution with no new priorities to meet today’s challenges, or to just shut the government down again. Neither outcome will help America’s families, communities and economy.”