Energy, enviro spending bills ready for Senate action

The three-bill package must still clear some disagreements over earmarks before final passage.

The House passed a three-bill spending package Thursday, an important step toward funding the Department of Energy, the Interior Department, EPA and other agencies after months of tumultuous negotiations.

Lawmakers cleared the compromise appropriations bills on a 397-28 vote, sending them over to the Senate, where outstanding disagreements over earmarks and a beleaguered Colorado climate lab could still complicate final passage.

The House’s approval of the three bills — Interior-Environment, Energy-Water and Commerce-Justice-Science — marks an important step forward for congressional appropriators as they work to finalize and pass the remaining spending bills before the Jan. 30 funding deadline.

“With the passage of these three bills, we will provide full-year funding for many of our most critical programs,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said on the House floor.

“We advance American strength by unleashing energy dominance, securing critical minerals and investing in nuclear power, and we uphold stewardship by protecting public lands, supporting [wildland firefighters], ensuring responsible resource management and fulfilling our obligations to our tribal nations,” Cole said.

He added, “All of this is achieved while cutting waste and keeping total FY26 spending below the current continuing resolution.”

Indeed, the roughly $180 billion spending package would cut funding for a number of bureaus and programs at DOE, Interior and EPA, with EPA seeing a 4 percent reduction to its overall top line.

The Energy-Water bill and Interior-Environment bills slash some funding for renewable energy and energy efficiency while boosting accounts for oil, gas and mineral production.

The vast majority of Democrats supported the spending bills because they reject the much steeper cuts favored by House Republicans and the Trump administration. The bills also contain no “poison pill” riders and keep intact myriad energy and climate programs that Republicans had tried to decimate.

“Is it perfect? No, Republicans still slashed renewable energy programs and raided mine-cleanup funds,” House Natural Resources ranking member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said in a statement. “But we kept the Land and Water Conservation Fund intact, saved water programs the administration tried to kill, and put guardrails in place to stop the sale of our national parks.”

House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) likewise called the spending package a “reasonable compromise.”

Lawmakers voted on the Commerce-Justice-Science bill before voting on the Interior-Environment and Energy-Water bills, which were packaged together. Both votes were bipartisan, as was a third vote on all three bills combined.

House Republican leaders adopted the split approach earlier this week after a group of conservatives expressed concerns with several earmarks in the CJS bill, including one that would provide $1.03 million for a “Climate Corps Fellowship” program in Massachusetts.

Ultimately, top appropriators removed only one earmark: A request from Minnesota Democrats that would have sent $1.03 million to a Minnesota nonprofit dedicated to job training, housing support and other services. The organization is among many in Minnesota that has come under fire amid allegations of potential fraud.

The Senate is expected to take an initial procedural vote on the spending package early next week. Outstanding concerns from some senators — including over funding for the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado — and the chamber’s procedural rules mean final passage could be delayed until later this month.

Meanwhile, appropriators are close to finalizing the next tranche of fiscal 2026 bills: Homeland Security, State-Foreign Operations and Financial Services-General Government. They could be released as soon as this weekend.

The final batch — Defense, Labor-HHS-Education and Transportation-HUD — could be unveiled later this month. Congress passed the Agriculture, Legislative Branch and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bills in November.

By:  Andres Picon
Source: E&E Daily

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