The League of Conservation Voters led 48 environmental organizations in sending the below letter to the House of Representatives urging Members to oppose the following amendments to H.R. 8998, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025, when they come up for votes. The League of Conservation Voters will strongly consider including votes related to these amendments in our 2024 National Environmental Scorecard.

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July 23, 2024

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, DC 20515

Re: Vote NO on Amendments to H.R. 8998, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025

Dear Member of Congress,

On behalf of our many members and supporters, the 48 undersigned groups call on you to OPPOSE the following amendments to H.R. 8998, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025. While not all undersigned organizations work directly on each of these issues, we appreciate your consideration of these pro-environmental positions.

Thank you for your consideration,

Alaska Wilderness League Action

American Bird Conservancy

American Rivers

Americans for Financial Reform

Animal Welfare Institute

California Environmental Voters

Center for Biological Diversity

Chesapeake Climate Action Network Action Fund

Clean Water Action

Climate Action Campaign

Climate Justice Alliance

Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks

Colorado Wildlands Project

Conservation Colorado

Conservation Lands Foundation

Defenders of Wildlife

Dolores River Boating Advocates

Earthjustice

Endangered Species Coalition

Environmental Law & Policy Center

Environmental Protection Network

Friends of the Earth US

Grand Canyon Trust

Green America

GreenLatinos

IFAW – International Fund for Animal Welfare

Information Network for Responsible Mining

Interfaith Power & Light

Kids for Saving Earth

League of Conservation Voters

National Wildlife Federation

Natural Resources Defense Council

Ocean Conservancy

Ocean Defense Initiative

Oceana

Oregon Natural Desert Association

Plug In America

Sheep Mountain Alliance

Sierra Club

Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

The Conservation Angler

The Wilderness Society

Trust for Public Land

Union of Concerned Scientists

Vet Voice Foundation

WE ACT for Environmental Justice

Western Watersheds Project

Wild Montana

Vote NO

2. Arrington (TX) This amendment would override scientific decision-making by preventing Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections from applying to seven species of freshwater mussels.  These mussel species are particularly vulnerable and would likely face extinction in the near future without federal intervention under the ESA.

3. Arrington (TX) This amendment would block a crucial plan to expand the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge in Texas. This refuge expansion is crucial for protection of the Southern population segment of lesser prairie chicken that is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. A wildlife refuge is the best means of protecting this habitat, and of implementing the kind of landscape-scale conservation strategy that will be needed to recover and eventually delist the lesser prairie chicken. The expansion is also good for Pronghorn, Sandhill Cranes, and numerous other species. The land is grassland, which is relatively inexpensive to manage, and landowners are gladly supporting.

4. Bentz (OR) The Owyhee Canyonlands is one of the most remote and rugged areas in the West. Boasting millions of acres of deep canyons, rolling sagebrush grasslands, and rushing rivers, the Owyhee is home to more than 200 species, some of the country’s darkest skies, and boundless recreational activities. All conservation options must remain on the table as we look to conserve this critical landscape, and preventing the use of the Antiquities Act to protect this landscape undermines the integrity of this bedrock conservation law.

7, 8, 9, 19, and 20. Boebert (CO), 57. Miller (IL), and 91. Tenney (NY) Any amendments to arbitrarily and punitively eliminate or drastically cut salaries for federal government officials are personal financial attacks on individuals whose job it is to carry out the administration’s policies and are wholly inappropriate and unwarranted. Top officials directing important federal government business should be fairly paid for their work, and any attacks on government officials’ pay should be rejected.

10. Boebert (CO) The proposed budget for the Environmental Protection Agency is already 20% lower than FY2024 CR levels. The US Forest Service takes “active management” very seriously and already devotes a majority of funds to this endeavor. Most wildfire management recommendations have favored more “active management” of forests and thus funding has followed. Reducing the amount of logging in many USFS lands is actually what is needed to recover wildlife habitat and restore forest function; this amendment unnecessarily diverts funds from an already overextended agency to support unsustainable management practices in National Forests.

11. Boebert (CO) CERCLA (AKA Superfund) is used to clean up abandoned refineries and other hazardous waste sites; funds are drawn from a tax on petroleum and chemical extraction. This is a vital program that is already oversubscribed; redirected funds will result in fewer cleanups of hazardous waste sites.

12. Boebert (CO) This amendment would cut funding from EPA’s core mission of protecting human health and the environment. The bill would already cut EPA’s funding by nearly 20%, yet amendments like this one seek to further chisel away at the EPA’s ability to help at-risk communities.

13. Boebert (CO) This amendment would prohibit the implementation, administration, and enforcement of the Bureau of Land Management’s final onshore oil and gas leasing rule. This rule implements long-overdue reforms to the federal oil and gas leasing program to protect taxpayers and public lands, including increasing the royalty rate for producing oil and gas on federal public lands, realigning rents and fees to account for decades of inflation, and reducing speculation by ending non-competitive leasing and implementing a new nomination fee.

15. Boebert (CO) This amendment would block a program that encourages Department of the Interior employees in heavily populated areas (such as the District of Columbia) to use non-motorized bicycles as their primary means of commuting to and from work. Employees who drive or use transit may be eligible for transportation benefits; this program provides benefits to those who bicycle as well. The program supports essential, zero-pollution transportation options, promotes health and wellness, and ultimately helps reduce traffic congestion and air pollution.

16. Boebert (CO) This amendment would prohibit the finalization, implementation, administration, and enforcement of a Resource Management Plan for the public lands managed by the Colorado River Valley Field Office and the Grand Junction Field Office of the Bureau of Land Management that fulfills BLM’s obligations under the terms of two settlement agreements. This supplemental environmental impact statement is necessary to address the issues identified in the lawsuits in the Colorado River Valley RMP, described in settlement agreements, and in the Grand Junction RMP, described in BLM’s motion for voluntary remand. In response to the court ruling and settlement agreements, the draft revisits oil and gas leasing availability and proposes balanced management for the 2 million acres in both field offices, which cover some of Colorado’s most important wildlife habitat, recreational areas, spectacular scenery, cultural sites, and water resources.

17. Boebert (CO) The Dolores Canyons is Colorado’s largest and most biodiverse stretch of unprotected public lands. These public lands span western Colorado’s remarkable high desert ecosystems and are home to a rich array of wildlife, cultural resources, and outdoor recreation opportunities. All conservation options must remain on the table as we look to conserve this critical landscape, and preventing the use of the Antiquities Act to protect this landscape undermines the integrity of this bedrock conservation law.

18. Boebert (CO) This amendment would block funding for the IRA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, an unprecedented investment in and catalyst of private capital mobilization for community development and clean energy projects. The Fund’s awardees have been selected to combat climate change, advance environmental justice, and accelerate the transition to an equitable energy future while also creating jobs and lowering energy costs for families. This amendment would prohibit the EPA from ensuring transparent and effective administration, implementation, or enforcement of the awards.

30. Cammack (FL) Federal public interest agencies issue rules that protect public health and safety, preserve natural resources, safeguard our air and water, and provide other crucial benefits to people nationwide. This amendment would prevent any major rules from being promulgated, regardless of their benefits or whether they are required by existing law. Arbitrarily restricting rules would put the public and the environment at risk.

41. Hageman (WY) This amendment would block an initiative by the BLM to site solar energy responsibly on federal public lands in 11 Western states in pursuit of the Biden-Harris administration’s goal of achieving a 100% carbon-free electricity grid by 2035. Right now, the BLM is working hard to gather input from communities, Tribes, and other stakeholders across the West to determine which BLM-managed lands are appropriate for utility-scale solar energy applications — including those on previously disturbed and degraded lands proximate to existing and planned transmission — and which lands should be off-limits. This process, if done right, will help ensure the clean energy buildout on public lands is smart, focused, inclusive, and supported by communities, and will help inform project-specific environmental reviews.

42. Hageman (WY) This amendment would undermine years of community-based work to produce a balanced resource management plan revision for the public lands managed by the BLM’s Rock Springs Field Office. The draft plan amendment proposes balanced management across 3.6 million acres of public lands in southwest Wyoming, conserving critical wildlife migration routes, protecting sensitive cultural resources, and maintaining recreational access for locals and visitors alike, while leaving over half of the planning area open to one or more types of industrial activities, such as oil and gas drilling, mining, or renewable energy. Prohibiting the implementation of the draft resource management plan revision runs counter to FLPMA and the will of the tens of thousands of people who submitted public comment in response to the draft plan.

43. Hageman (WY) The Office of Agricultural and Rural Affairs is a new program launched by EPA in order to better engage farmers and rural areas during the regulatory process. Headed by the EPA’s former head agricultural advisor, the OARA has already been conducting field visits, webinars, and roundtables to make sure rural voices are a part of the EPA’s processes. This is also reflected in the farmer-partner approach taken to many of EPA’s recent rules.

44. Hageman (WY) This amendment would prevent the implementation of updated, carefully considered resource management plans from BLM field offices in Wyoming and Montana. These plans would amend previous plans to reduce leasing for coal extraction and allow for improved consideration of health and climate impacts. The updated resources management plans were prepared following screenings and environmental analyses that considered no-leasing and limited coal leasing alternatives and sought to disclose the public health impacts of burning fossil fuels in the planning areas. Prohibiting the implementation of such resource management plan implementations conflicts with the extensive public process and analyses used to develop the draft plans.

45. Harshbarger (TN) This amendment would defund the Board on Geographic Names, the federal government body that ensures accurate and consistent place names within the United States and abroad. Businesses, local governments, and average Americans all benefit from the work of the Board when purchasing property, using GPS, or doing any other activity that depends upon having a consistent and agreed upon place name. It is also tasked with renaming features with racist and offensive names: last year, for instance, the board changed the names of three features – Mt. Evans in Colorado, and Jeff Davis Peak and Jeff Davis Creek in Montana – to better reflect the area’s historic natural resources including today’s values of inclusiveness and equity. They are now Mt. Blue Sky, Three Eagles Peak, and Dovavinai Baa O’ogwaide – all in honor of, and in partnership with, Tribes. This amendment attacks both baseline government functionality and important work to right historic injustices.

46. Huizenga (MI), Walberg (MI), and 84. Pfluger (TX) EPA has been successfully implementing the bipartisan and popular Clean Air Act and its amendments for decades, delivering trillions of dollars in net social benefits and preventing hundreds of thousands of premature deaths, among other public health benefits, all while the U.S. has seen economic growth. The National Ambient Air Quality Standards are critical for delivering on the promise of clean air for all to breathe, and arbitrary attempts to block the science-based efforts of the EPA to carry out its mandate to protect public health only serve to exacerbate environmental injustices and pollution-related health challenges in those areas and beyond.

47. Jackson (TX) Across all 50 states the 568 units of the National Wildlife Refuge System manage some of our country’s most imperiled and irreplaceable natural resources and wildlife yet are currently understaffed and have a growing different maintenance backlog. Some estimates identify an additional $1 billion per year is needed to adequately manage our refuge system and anything less continues to set up these sites for failure. In other words, decreased funding will mean fewer staff, growing maintenance backlogs, inability to monitor ecological developments, risk of danger to visitors, and biodiversity loss.

48. Jackson (TX) This amendment would override scientific decision-making by preventing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) from finalizing or implementing the proposed rule to list the Texas kangaroo rat as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and designate critical habitat for the species. FWS first identified the Texas kangaroo rat as a species that may warrant listing as endangered or threatened in 1982, more than 40 years ago. Preventing this rule could doom the Texas kangaroo rat to extinction.

56. McCormick (GA) While the OIG at EPA may be underfunded, the entire agency and its critical services are drastically so. EPA faces a 20% budget cut in this appropriations bill, with Environmental Programs and Management, the title under which EPA does most of its work to keep people, wildlife, and other areas safe, taking the brunt of the cut. A cut of $7 million will mean further reduction in enforcement, technical services and grants available.

73. Norman (SC) The transportation sector emits the most climate pollution of any sector in the U.S., and rules aiming to reduce emissions, which also improve the efficiency, of vehicles are critical to meeting our commitments to reduce climate pollution across the country and advance environmental justice particularly for near-roadway communities. Improving fuel efficiency for cars and trucks also helps save money for businesses and families and reduces our reliance on volatile and expensive fossil fuels.

75. Obernolte (CA) This amendment would prevent state action to protect communities from dangerous emissions. Locomotives relying almost exclusively on diesel fuel were responsible for 10% of NOX emissions from mobile sources in California in 2020. Denying funds for the EPA to approve a waiver for the California Air Resources Board would interfere with the state’s ability to protect its residents.

76. Ogles (TN) This provision would block implementation of the critical fiscal reforms to the oil and gas leasing system that were enacted by Congress and are being implemented by BLM’s “Fluid Mineral Leases and Leasing Process” rule, which was finalized in April. These reforms have long been flagged as critical by government watchdogs and enjoy significant support across the West and bipartisan support in Congress. The reforms better harmonize the federal oil and gas system with the fees, rents, and royalties charged by states and ensure that publicly-owned resources are not being sold off at bargain basement prices.

77. Ogles (TN) This amendment would block funding for the Environmental Financial Advisory Board at the EPA. In addition to its core work of providing research and reports on improving financing and reducing the costs of environmental protection, the group is also currently engaged on the IRA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a key investment to combat climate change, advance environmental justice, and accelerate the transition to an equitable energy future.

78. Ogles (TN) This amendment would block research to better understand the threats of climate change, including critical work on the National Climate Assessment. This not only blocks important research but also stymies efforts to share clear information with state and local decisionmakers. Blocking our understanding of these current and future impacts does nothing to protect us from them.

81. Perry (PA) This amendment is just another attempt to roll back the Clean Air Act and block any potential plan to address climate change, but it would also undermine our ability to reduce international air emissions that harm the United States – cross-border air pollution issues that have been a problem before such as with Canada in 1970s and 1980s.

83. Perry (PA) This amendment would cut all funding to the Council of Environmental Quality, effectively eliminating the agency’s leadership role in coordinating NEPA analysis across the government. This would only hamper environmental review, slowing down worthy projects and risking approval of flawed ones that could harm at-risk communities.

85. Roy (TX) This amendment would block efforts to reduce disproportionate pollution and climate threats in communities on the front lines of our nation’s most dangerous legacy environmental and health hazards. For too long, communities of color and low income communities, both rural and urban, have been forced to bear the brunt of pollution.

89 and 90. Stauber (MN) The Boundary Waters is the most visited Wilderness in the United States. The Wilderness is under threat from a proposed copper-sulfide mine at its doorstep. The interconnected waterways and unspoiled forests of this Wilderness offer world-class recreation, critical habitat, and support the people and economies of wilderness-edge communities. All conservation options must remain on the table as we look to conserve this critical landscape, and preventing the use of the Antiquities Act or the expansion of Wilderness to protect this landscape undermines the integrity of this bedrock conservation law.

92. Tenney (NY) President Biden’s Executive Order on Access to Voting is a critical effort to increase nonpartisan voter registration and participation when people interact with government agencies. This amendment would thwart common-sense, good-government innovations to better serve voters of all stripes, frustrating the goals of the decades-old, bipartisan National Voter Registration Act.

93. Tiffany (WI) This amendment would prevent the decommissioning of roads on public lands under the Legacy Roads and Trails program, unless it was an unauthorized road. This would prevent the decommissioning of roads that had previously been closed or were temporary roads. Decommissioning of roads is extremely important in preventing wildfires because the vast majority of fires start very close to roads, and roads fragment habitat and can cause erosion and harm to waterways.

The following amendments go against our organizations’ commitment to racial justice and equity – we urge opposition on any en bloc that includes these or similar amendments: 6. Bice (OK), 14. Boebert (CO), 21. Brecheen (OK), 25. Brecheen (OK), Burlison (MO), and 72. Norman (SC).

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