The League of Conservation Voters led 19 environmental organizations in sending the below letter to the House of Representatives making the following vote recommendation on H.R. 8771, the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2025, when it comes up for a vote. The League of Conservation Voters will strongly consider including votes on this legislation and its amendment in our 2024 National Environmental Scorecard.

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June 27, 2024

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Re: Please oppose H.R. 8771, which cuts U.S. foreign assistance to address the climate crisis and undercuts US global climate leadership

Dear Representative,

On behalf of our millions of members and supporters, the undersigned groups urge you to oppose H.R. 8771, the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2025, as well as any amendments that are detrimental to our environment and climate justice.

As another summer of extreme heat across the nation begins, H.R. 8771 seeks to undermine global climate efforts and compromise the United States’ global leadership in this fight, while neglecting the profound connections between climate change and the mounting development, humanitarian, and security concerns facing communities here at home and around the world. The steep funding cuts in this bill will undermine our international commitments on climate change and environmental protection, and are just the latest example of how these harmful spending caps, which this bill is painfully far under, result in spending cuts across all twelve appropriations bills. We urge Congress to reject these draconian limits and fully fund environmental programs in SFOPs and across the board.

Poison pill riders in this bill further gut our nation’s response to the climate crisis at home and abroad. The bill prohibits funds for international climate programs like the Green Climate Fund, the Loss and Damage Fund, and the Clean Technology Fund, which are meant to directly address the climate crisis and support the countries experiencing its worst effects. It explicitly prohibits implementation of the landmark Paris Climate Agreement, as well as a suite of executive orders that address the interconnected challenges of climate change, environmental justice, economic opportunity, and peace and security. It further seeks to undercut US authority to regulate cross-border pipelines, including in ongoing State Department negotiations with Canada on Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline. Poison pill riders such as these and the many exclusionary and identity-attacking riders in this bill were removed from the final FY24 SFOPs bill just a few months ago; by going down this path again, we fear Congress is wasting valuable time that could be better spent producing bipartisan legislation that has a realistic chance of becoming law.

Again, we urge you to REJECT H.R. 8771, the FY25 SFOPs appropriations bill, which would threaten the progress we have made on tackling the climate crisis, and send a troubling signal to partners around the world about our commitment to addressing this growing existential challenge.

Sincerely,

League of Conservation Voters

350.org

Center for Biological Diversity

Clean Water Action

Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks

Earthjustice

Earthworks

Endangered Species Coalition

Environmental Law & Policy Center

Friends of the Sonoran Desert

Interfaith Power & Light

Mennonite Central Committee U.S.

Natural Resources Defense Council

Ocean Defense Initiative

Oceana

Oxfam America

Sierra Club

The Conservation Angler

Union of Concerned Scientists