Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies: FY2017 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 departments—including 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 FY2017, the President requested $33.13 billion for the approximately 30 agencies and entities typically funded in the annual Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations law. For the 10 major DOI agencies in Title I of the bill, the request was $12.24 billion, or 36.9% of the total requested. For EPA, funded by Title II of the bill, the request was $8.27 billion, or 25.0% of the total. For the 20 agencies and other entities funded in Title III of the bill, the request was $12.62 billion, or 38.1% of the total.

The President’s request of $33.13 billion would be an increase of $907.6 million (2.8%) compared to the total FY2016 enacted appropriations of $32.23 billion in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016 (P.L. 114-113), Division G. The FY2016 total included $452.0 million for the Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program, which compensates counties and local governments for nontaxable lands within their jurisdictions. The FY2017 request did not include funding for PILT because the President proposed to fund this program through mandatory appropriations. In addition, the President’s request included a proposal for a new adjustment to the discretionary spending limits in law that would provide an additional $1.15 billion for wildfire suppression for FY2017. FY2016 enacted appropriations did not include such a discretionary cap adjustment.

Under the President’s proposal, the total for each of the three titles of the bill would increase by varying amounts over FY2016 enacted appropriations. DOI agencies would receive an increase of $225.8 million (1.9%), funding for EPA would increase by $127.3 million (1.6%), and the total for all Related Agencies in Title III would increase by $554.5 million (4.6%).