Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016
Latest action. Committee of the WholeA procedural device letting the entire House sit as one large committee, where a quorum is 100 instead of 218 and debate moves under faster rules.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) House on the State of the UnionThe President's constitutionally required report to Congress on the state of the union, delivered since 1913 as an annual speech to a joint session.Read the full definition (opens a new tab) rises leaving H.R. 2822 as unfinished business.
(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)
Highlights: The Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016 provides appropriations for the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and related agencies for FY2016.
The bill provides regular annual appropriations for most of the Department of the Interior, including the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the National Park Service (NPS), the United States Geological Survey (USGS), the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education. It does not include the Bureau of Reclamation or the Central Utah Project.
Related agencies funded in the bill include the Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, the Department of Health and Human Service's Indian Health Service (IHS), the Smithsonian Institution, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The bill decreases overall discretionary spending for the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies below FY2015 levels.
Compared to FY2015 levels, the bill increases funding for Interior and the IHS while decreasing funding for the EPA and the Forest Service.
Within the Interior budget, the bill:
increases funding for the BLM, the NPS, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education;
decreases funding for the USFWS; and
funds the USGS at the FY2015 level.
Also included in the bill are several provisions that affect the ability of agencies to issue regulations in areas such as greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, water quality, endangered species, hydraulic fracturing, and oceans policy.
Full Summary:
Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016
Provides FY2016 appropriations for the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and related agencies.
The summary continues for 202 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Reported to House without amendment" stage on June 18, 2015. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on July 8, 2015: Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union rises leaving H.R. 2822 as unfinished business.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 114th Congress (2015-16), 329 of the 10,233 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.2 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
KEN CALVERT (R-CA) introduced it on June 18, 2015. No cosponsors are recorded.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on June 18, 2015, 4102 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 4082 days ago, on July 8, 2015.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 114th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2017 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers