Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies: FY2013 and FY2014 Appropriations

Summary

The Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill includes funding for most of the Department of the Interior (DOI) and for agencies within other departmentsincluding the Forest Service within the Department of Agriculture and the Indian Health Service within the Department of Health and Human Services. It also provides funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), arts and cultural agencies, and numerous other entities.

For FY2014, $30.12 billion was appropriated for the approximately 30 agencies and entities typically funded in the annual Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations law. This total included appropriations in P.L. 113-76, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014, and additional funding for Wildland Fire Management in P.L. 113-46, the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2014. For the 10 major DOI agencies in Title I of the bill, the appropriation was $10.47 billion, or 34.8% of the total enacted. For EPA, funded by Title II of the bill, the appropriation was $8.20 billion, or 27.2% of the total. For about 20 agencies and other entities typically funded in Title III of the bill, the appropriation was $11.44 billion, or 38.0% of the total.

The FY2014 total appropriation was an increase of $431.5 million (1.5%) over the total FY2013 appropriation of $29.69 billion. This FY2013 level included full-year and supplemental appropriations, and reflected reductions from sequestration and an across-the-board rescission. Excluding supplemental appropriations for FY2013 for disaster relief (in P.L. 113-2), the FY2014 appropriation was an increase of $1.80 billion (6.4%) over the $28.32 billion FY2013 appropriation. In addition, relative to FY2012 appropriations of $29.23 billion, the FY2014 appropriation was an increase of $891.4 million (3.0%).

Neither the House nor Senate Appropriations Committee reported a regular appropriations bill for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies for FY2014. However, the FY2014 appropriation was $5.78 billion (23.7%) more than the $24.34 billion in a House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee draft, but $717.0 million (2.3%) less than the $30.84 billion in a draft of the leaders of the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee. Further, as compared with the Presidents request of $29.91 billion, the FY2014 appropriation was $206.3 million (0.7%) higher.

Because a FY2014 appropriations bill for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies had not been enacted at the start of the fiscal year on October 1, 2013, agencies funded by the bill initially received FY2014 appropriations under a short-term continuing resolution (P.L. 113-46, extended by P.L. 113-73). The continuing resolution generally extended appropriations for continuing projects and activities at the FY2013 post-sequestration, post-rescission levels. The law provided exceptions for Wildland Fire Management. The enactment of P.L. 113-46 ended the funding gap and partial government shutdown that began on October 1, 2013.