June 02, 2026

65 Organizations Oppose Interior Appropriations Bill

This bill would underfund our nation’s public lands, threaten wildlife populations, benefit extractive industries, and exacerbate the climate crisis

By Ann Mesnikoff, Federal Legislative Director

Ahead of this week’s House Appropriations Committee markup of the Fiscal Year 2027 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, 65 environmental organizations sent the below letter to members of the House Appropriations Committee urging them to oppose the bill. Here are some reasons why we oppose this bill, it would:

Read Full Letter

Raise Energy Costs

This bill would raise energy costs for hardworking families by cutting affordable clean energy, while continuing to dismantle the agencies that protect our lands, water, air, oceans, wildlife, climate, and public health. The bill includes numerous extreme, partisan, anti-environmental policy riders that have no place in the appropriations process… This bill must be rejected, and Congress should instead pass a bill that provides adequate funding and excludes damaging policy provisions.

Gut Environmental Protection

The bill would cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by roughly 20%, eroding protections for clean air and safe drinking water, and severely reducing support for the scientists, inspectors, state agencies, Tribal programs, and water systems communities rely on to prevent pollution, enforce the law, and respond to contamination. For example, it would drastically cut investments in the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, programs with longstanding bipartisan support that help states upgrade their water infrastructure. The bill would also weaken EPA’s cleanup capacity by reducing core Superfund appropriations and relying more heavily on uncertain revenue sources, risking slower cleanups at contaminated sites.

Cut National Parks & Forests

The bill would cut funding to the National Park Service—following a year of massive reductions to staffing—and impede the more than 330 million annual visitors who visit our national parks, restricting tourism dollars to rural economies throughout the country. Similar cuts to the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Fish and Wildlife Service would further harm our nation’s public lands, water, wildlife, and the people who benefit from them.

Reject Science & Threaten Clean Air/Water

The bill includes numerous harmful poison-pill riders eroding safeguards for our air, water, lands and wildlife which have no place in the appropriations process and must be rejected. Riders include ones that would restrict the EPA’s ability to follow the science and protect people from pollution, toxic exposures, and climate related risks. Other riders would undermine protections for wildlife, including some of our most iconic imperiled species, and interfere with science-based management of our national wildlife refuges, parks, and other public lands.

Now is the time to invest more—not less—in the agencies and programs that steward our lands, water, air, oceans, and wildlife and protect our public health.

Despite our concerns about the substance of this bill, we recognize that this process is iterative and that legislation is painstakingly negotiated on a bipartisan basis. We want to be clear that we support efforts by Congress to protect and assert its rightful Article I authority through the FY27 appropriations process. Any future appropriations bills must go further to enact remedies to defend Congress’ constitutionally afforded power of the purse, and protect clear reporting and accountability.

Sincerely,

• 350 Bay Area Action
• Alaska Wilderness League
• American Bird Conservancy
• Animal Protection New Mexico
• Bayou City Waterkeeper
• California Environmental Voters
• Change the Chamber
• Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) Action Fund
• Clean Water Action
• Climate Action Campaign
• Climate Justice Alliance
• Conservation Lands Foundation
• Conservation Law Foundation
• Conservation Voters of PA
• Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action
• Defenders of Wildlife
• Earthjustice Action
• Earthworks
• Endangered Species Coalition
• Environmental Defense Fund
• Environmental Law & Policy Center
• Environmental Working Group
• Evergreen Action
• Freshwater Future
• Friends of the Earth Action
• Glynn Environmental Coalition
• GreenLatinos
• Greenpeace USA
• Illinois Environmental Council
• Kettle Range Conservation Group
• Kids for Saving Earth
• Latino Outdoors
• League of Conservation Voters
• Maine Conservation Voters
• Missouri River Bird Observatory
• Moms Clean Air Force
• Mountain Mamas
• National Wildlife Federation
• Natural Resources Defense Council
• Nature for All
• New Jersey League of Conservation Voters
• New York League of Conservation Voters
• Next 100 Coalition
• North Carolina League of Conservation Voters
• Ocean Conservancy
• Ocean Defense Initiative
• Oceana
• Oil Change International
• Oregon League of Conservation Voters
• Oregon Natural Desert Association
• Project Eleven Hundred
• Sage Steppe Wild
• Sierra Club
• The Alaska Center
• The Wilderness Society
• Trust for Public Land
• Union of Concerned Scientists
• Vermont Conservation Voters
• Vermont Natural Resources Council
• Voices for Progress
• Washington Conservation Action
• Western Watersheds Project
• WildEarth Guardians
• Wildlife for All
• Wisconsin Conservation Voters