Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies: FY2013 Appropriations (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Dec. 17, 2013 |
| Report Number |
R42525 |
| Report Type |
Report |
| Authors |
Carol Hardy Vincent, Robert Esworthy, David M. Bearden, R. Sam Garrett, Jerome P. Bjelopera, Elayne J. Heisler, Kelsi Bracmort, Marc Humphries, Shannon S. Loane, Cassandria Dortch, Pervaze A. Sheikh |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
Summary:
The Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill includes funding for the Department of the Interior (DOI), except for the Bureau of Reclamation, 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 includes funding for arts and cultural agencies, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and numerous other entities.
Neither the House nor the Senate passed a regular appropriations bill for FY2013 for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. On July 10, 2012, the House Appropriations Committee reported H.R. 6091 (H.Rept. 112-589) with $27.66 billion for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. If enacted, this level would have been a decrease of $1.57 billion from the FY2012 level of $29.23 billion and a decrease of $2.07 billion from the Administrations FY2013 request of $29.72 billion. While no regular appropriations bill was marked up or reported in the Senate, the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Appropriations Interior Subcommittee released a draft bill, together with a draft detailed funding table, on September 25, 2012. The draft would have provided $29.72 billion for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, $5.3 million lower than the Presidents request but $489.8 million higher than the FY2012 appropriation and $2.06 billion higher than the House committee-reported level in H.R. 6091.
Because no regular FY2013 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill was enacted prior to the beginning of the fiscal year, Congress first included funds for these agencies in a continuing appropriations resolution (CR, P.L. 112-175) through March 27, 2013. For accounts in the Interior bill, the CR generally continued funding at a level that was 0.612% higher than the FY2012 level.
P.L. 112-175 was superseded by a second law, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 (P.L. 113-6). Enacted on March 26, 2013, the law provided full-year continuing appropriations for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies through September 30, 2013. The Congressional Budget Office had estimated that, excluding the effects of sequestration, the law contained $29.83 billion for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. However, appropriations in the law were reduced under the sequester order of the President, issued on March 1, 2013. That order implemented an across-the-board cut for (non-exempt, nondefense) discretionary funding, which was calculated based on a reduction of each account of about 5.0%; the accompanying report indicated a dollar amount of budget authority to be canceled from each account pursuant to that across-the-board cut. Appropriations in the law also were reduced by an across-the-board rescission of 0.2% under P.L. 113-6. The effect of these reductions on budgetary resources of agencies, accounts, and programs within Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies initially was unclear, but was subsequently determined. For final FY2013 appropriations for agencies, reflecting the sequester and across-the-board rescission, see CRS Report R43142, Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies: FY2013 and FY2014 Appropriations.
