Some optimism ahead of fiscal 2018 spending talks – E&E News

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Geof Koss and George Cahlink, E&E News reporters

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said this week, "Let's put '17 to an end. The discussion about '18 funding begins right now." Photo courtesy of C-SPAN.

Lawmakers said this week that the rejection of deep cuts sought by the Trump administration to federal energy and environmental agencies in this week's spending compromise could set the tone for less partisan fiscal 2018 spending deliberations.

The administration "highlighted what they felt were priorities; we took a look at them, and we made the determinations as we saw fit," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that funds U.S. EPA and the Interior Department. "And I think you will see 2018 approps kind of move forward in the same manner."

New Mexico Sen. Tom Udall, Murkowski's Democratic counterpart atop the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, offered a similar assessment. "I think we now have a good baseline," he said yesterday.

"All the things the administration was advocating for, they don't look like they're really flying in this Congress," said Udall. "And I would say that's a bipartisan statement against those kinds of cuts."

President Trump is due to sign into law a $1.017 trillion fiscal 2017 omnibus spending bill that rejects his call for steep cuts to EPA, Department of Energy renewable energy research and various agencies' climate science programs.

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But despite talk of bipartisanship now and for the future, Udall said fiscal 2018 appropriations will be a "tougher lift" because of a late start.

"We're way behind," he said. "Normally, we'd be holding appropriations hearings in May and June, and we're only going to start, I think, in June for the very early ones."

Udall said he anticipates that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt will appear before the panel after the White House releases its full budget request later this month.

Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, yesterday credited "all these marches" showing public support for EPA and other agencies.

"A lot of voices were heard, and I think those were reflected in the legislation," he told reporters yesterday.

Looking to the next round of spending talks, Carper added: "We're not going to take anything for granted."

"We're just going to continue the drumbeat and make sure members understand the consequences of the deep cuts proposed by President Trump," he said. "They were not thoughtful, and as it turns out, they were not supported by Democrats or Republicans, for the most part."

Democrats cheered fighting to keep out many policy riders from the omnibus. And while there were signs that the bill would include funding to restart the licensing process for the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., those dollars were left out.

But a senior House Energy and Commerce Republican is confident the money will be included in the next spending bill. "It's basically really a 2018 issue," said Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy. "I'm not concerned."

There are signs that at least some partisan fights are likely to play out in upcoming spending bill talks. Citing concerns over the size of the package, conservatives lined up against the omnibus this week.

Nearly all 30 or so members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus voted against it, as did more half the much larger House Republican Study Committee.

Almost all the 18 votes in the Senate against the deal came from conservatives, among them Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Steve Daines of Montana and Jeff Flake of Arizona.

One of the House's conservative opponents, Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), is already looking at options to cut spending in the fiscal 2018 bills using a decades-old provision he helped revive for this Congress.

The provision, known as the Holman Rule, would permit House floor amendments to target federal programs and agencies by cutting employees or eliminating their pay. The practice had been banned since the Reagan administration.

Griffith said he already has told EPA Administrator Pruitt he hopes to use the rule to shift some jobs at the agency. The lawmaker stressed that he is not pursuing "the whole destruction" of EPA but wants to make it more efficient and responsive.

"We need to get some of the people out of the alabaster towers in D.C. and move them into the field in places like Flint, Mich., where they can help people solve problems, not just punish them," said Griffith, an Energy and Commerce member who has been a critic of EPA regulations.

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sounded a partisan tone by telling reporters yesterday that the main lesson learned from the omnibus negotiations is that Republicans need Democrats to pass spending bills.

She said the GOP had only 141 votes in favor of the omnibus bill, requiring it to have Democrats provide the rest needed to get to a 218 majority. Without Democratic support, Pelosi said, government would have faced a shutdown.

"There's a recognition of a strong number of Republicans who have a very easy comfort level in shutting government down. So that just empowers us," she added.

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Some optimism ahead of fiscal 2018 spending talks - E&E News