NPCC News: Budget Deal Mixed Bag for Plants and Conservation
December 21, 2015
 
Last week Congress and the Obama administration adopted a $1.149 trillion omnibus spending deal that funds the federal government for the remainder of Fiscal Year (FY) 2016.
 
 
The bill was stripped of nearly all of the anti-science and anti-environment riders that had been pushed by extremists in Congress. Riders removed from the final bill included one that would have prohibited research on climate change, and several that would have stopped Federal agencies from protecting many rare and listed species and their habitats.
 
The bill also reestablished – and increased funding for - the popular and effective Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which Congress had defunded in October (see NPCC News). The LWCF uses fees from offshore oil and gas to fund parks, refuges, and other wildland conservation projects.
 
THANKS TO ALL WHO CONTACTED CONGRESS AND THE WHITE HOUSE ABOUT THESE ISSUES.
YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE!
 
Unfortunately, the bill did not do as good a job on curbing climate change. Despite the global oil glut, despite the worldwide scientific and public consensus regarding the urgent need to slow greenhouse gas emissions, and despite the adoption of the Paris climate agreements days earlier, Congress lifted the 40 year ban on U.S. oil exports and also passed coal-friendly restrictions on updates to the Clean Water Act.
 
Although the Obama Administration opposes some of these measures, the President signed the bill on December 18.
 
Budget Summary from the Ecological Society of America Policy Desk:
 
On the evening of Dec. 15, congressional leaders released a bipartisan $1.149 trillion omnibus spending deal that funds the federal government for the remainder of Fiscal Year (FY) 2016. The bill comes after enactment of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, which made it possible for moderate increases in overall discretionary spending for the next two fiscal years.
 
To prevent a shutdown, Congress passed a stopgap continuing resolution to fund the government through Dec. 22. The House is expected to take up the measure on Dec. 18. with the Senate expected to vote on the bill shortly after. The legislation is expected to pass both chambers of Congress and the president has indicated he will sign the measure.
 
Most of the major harmful environmental riders from House appropriations bills were not included from the final bill. Policy riders pushed by Congressional Republicans that were absent from the final bill included prohibitions on climate change research and related activities, restrictions on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Ocean Policy, restrictions on implementation of Fishery Management Council decisions, delisting of gray wolves in Wyoming and Great Lakes from Endangered Species Act protection, and prohibitions on enforcing the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The bill also omits language to make the Census’s American Community Survey (ACS) voluntary, a victory for the National Science Foundation (NSF), which uses ACS data to measure the number of Americans with education or employment in science and engineering-related fields.
 
The bill does include language that would continue to prohibit the US Fish and Wildlife Service from listing the sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act, despite the fact that the agency this year signaled it’s already taken steps that would make the listing unnecessary. The bill also retained a prohibition prohibiting the administration from changing the definition of “fill material” under the Clean Water Act, which coal state lawmakers argue could restrict mining.
 
The bill does not include language recommended by the Obama administration to reform how the nation funds its activities related to wildfire management and containment.
 
For NSF, the bill includes $7.46 billion, a $119 million increase over the FY 2015 enacted level. The bill does not include restrictions on the NSF directorates that fund the geosciences or social and behavioral sciences. The bill requires federal agency Inspector Generals to conduct random audits of grant funding to combat waste and fraud and establishes an early warning system on cost overruns and requires agencies to notify congressional committees when costs grow more than 10 percent.
 
The omnibus also provides a three-year reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund and funds the program at $450 million in FY 2016, a $143.86 million increase over the FY 2015 enacted level.
 
Below is FY 2016 funding levels for other federal agencies and bureaus of interest to the ecological community relative to the FY 2015 enacted level:
Click here for a summary of the bill.
 
The full text of the bill is available here.
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