The GOP-drafted bill would limit protections of bighorn sheep, end new funding to list endangered species and cut the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s budget by nearly one-third.
The wide-ranging legislation was approved Thursday by the House Interior and the Environment Appropriations Subcommittee under the chairmanship of Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho.
The bill cuts 2012 spending for the Department of the Interior, the EPA and related agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service, by $2.1 billion from this year’s budget.
Whether any of the riders proposed by Simpson and other Republicans survive — or the 12 percent in extra cuts the bill lops off President Barack Obama’s budget — may be decided in the deficit-reduction talks ongoing between Obama and congressional leaders.
“I don’t know how they will affect the 2012 budget,” Simpson said Thursday. “Maybe we’ll have to come back with another bill.”
Read the complete story at idahostatesman.com