Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies: Overview of FY2018 Appropriations

Summary

The Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill includes funding for approximately 30 agencies and entities. They include most of the Department of the Interior (DOI) as well as agencies within other departments, such as the Forest Service within the Department of Agriculture and the Indian Health Service within the Department of Health and Human Services. The bill also provides funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), arts and cultural agencies, and other entities. At issue for Congress is determining the amount, terms, and conditions of funding for FY2018 for agencies and programs within the bill.

For FY2018, President Trump requested $27.26 billion for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. For the DOI agencies in Title I of the bill, the request was $10.62 billion, or 38.9% of the total requested. For EPA, funded in Title II of the bill, the request was $5.66 billion, or 20.7% of the total. For the roughly 20 agencies and other entities funded in Title III of the bill, the request was $10.99 billion, or 40.3% of the total.

The President’s request would be an overall decrease of $5.37 billion (-16.5%) from the total FY2017 enacted appropriations of $32.63 billion. This FY2017 total includes $407.0 million in emergency funding for wildfire suppression by the Forest Service and DOI. Under the President’s proposal, funding for each of the bill’s three titles would decrease by a different amount relative to the FY2017 enacted levels. DOI agencies (Title I) would receive $1.64 billion (-13.4%) less than in FY2017. EPA funding (Title II) would decrease by $2.40 billion (-29.8%), the largest dollar amount and percentage of the three titles. The total for all Related Agencies (Title III) would decline by $1.33 billion (-10.8%).

On July 21, 2017, the House Appropriations Committee reported H.R. 3354, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2018, containing $31.52 billion in appropriations for FY2018 for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. The bill would provide $1.12 billion (-3.4%) less than the FY2017 appropriation of $32.63 billion. For each of the bill’s three titles, H.R. 3354 would decrease funds by a different amount relative to the FY2017 enacted levels. Funding for DOI agencies would decrease by $302.7 million (-2.5%). Funding for EPA would decline by $534.4 million (-6.6%), the largest dollar amount and percentage of the three titles. The total for all Related Agencies in Title III would decline by $284.9 million (-2.3%).

The $31.52 billion for FY2018 in H.R. 3354, as reported, was $4.26 billion (15.6%) higher than the President’s FY2018 requested appropriation of $27.26 billion. The bill contained more funding than the President sought for each of the three titles. Under the House committee-reported bill, as compared with the President’s request, funding for DOI agencies would be $1.33 billion (12.6%) greater, funding for EPA would be $1.87 billion (33.1%) greater, and funding for Title III agencies would be $1.05 billion (9.5%) greater.

This report first presents a brief overview of the major agencies in the annual Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. It then describes the appropriations requested by President Trump for FY2018. Next, it compares the President’s request for FY2018 with appropriations enacted for FY2017. It then compares the amounts in H.R. 3354, as reported by the House Appropriations Committee, with FY2017 enacted appropriations and with FY2018 appropriations requested by the President.