2019–06–24: Trout on the Hill.

Week ahead for TU priorities in D.C.

The Big Picture:

• Appropriations process continues in the House.
• TU-Nevada in town to talk Ruby Mountains.
• Congressional hearings and markups related to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, climate issues, funding maintenance backlog at our parks and public lands; uranium mining and critical minerals policies.

Priorities this week:

Appropriations:

The key bills of interest to TU are (1) Energy and Water; (2) Agriculture and related; (3) Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS); (4) Interior, Environment and Related (IER). For a refresher on the appropriations process, check out our budget and appropriations primer on ShoutForTrout.

About the Congressional Budget and Appropriations Process

The House is moving forward with several bills combined in two processes or “mini-buses,” outlined below. The Senate is further behind schedule and will likely not take up the spending bills until later this summer.

• Last week: Minibus #1, H.R. 2740, which contains appropriations for Energy and Water, passed the House last week, with the TU-supported amendment to de-fund the patently flawed review process for the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska. To read more about that amendment and why we supported, check out this post.

House passes bill to cease Corps funding for Pebble permit | Trout Unlimited

• This week: Minibus #2, still in progress; likely to finish on Tuesday. This package includes the following spending bills: (a) Commerce, Justice and Science (funding for NOAA/NMFS); (b) Agriculture (funding for NRCS); and Interior, Environment and Related (funding for USFS, USFWS, EPA, BLM, and LWCF).

LINK TO AMENDMENT TRACKER

Land & Water Conservation Fund: The quest for permanent funding.

On Tuesday, 6/18, the House Natural Resources Committee advanced a bill that would provide permanent funding for LWCF (See TU statement). This week (Tu.6/25), the Senate will hold a LWCF hearing to review the implementation of the LWCF program, setting the stage for future consideration and markup of the Senate’s counterpart to the House bill.

Hearings of note:

Tuesday, 6/25

• Full Committee to Review LWCF: Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resource. 10:00 AM EDT, 366 Dirksen. E&E Article
• Protecting and Restoring America’s Iconic Waters: House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment. 10:00 AM EDT, 2167 Rayburn. E&E Article
• “Uranium Mining: Contamination and Criticality”: House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. 10:00 AM EDT, 1324 Longworth. E&E Article
• “Chronic Wasting Disease: The Threats to Wildlife, Public Lands, Hunting, and Health”: House Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation. 2:00 PM EDT, 1324 Longworth. E&E Article
• “Recovery, Resiliency, and Readiness (Climate Change Part III)”: House Committee on Oversight and Reform Subcommittee on the Environment. 2:00 PM EDT, 2154 Rayburn. E&E Article

Wednesday, 6/26

• [Colorado CORE Act] and [Restore our Parks / Maintenance Backlog] “Markup of H.R. 823 and H.R. 1225”: House Committee on Natural Resources. 10:00 AM EDT. 1324 Longworth. E&E Article

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. For questions or for more information, contact kate.miller@tu.org or visit standup.tu.org.