A government spending bill is a government priorities bill. So with Congress preparing to vote on the bill needed to keep the government from shutting down, what priorities have been slipped in or knocked out?
- Republicans obviously took the opportunity to weaken environmental enforcement where they could. This bill's immediate cuts to Environmental Protection Agency funding aren't so huge, but they continue an awful trend:
The agency gets $8.1 billion, down $60 million from the last fiscal year. The agency's budget has been slashed by $2.2 billion, or 21 percent, since fiscal 2010, according to GOP aides. The cuts mean that EPA will have to reduce its staffing to the lowest levels since 1989.
Also included:
A provision that would bar the EPA from regulating methane emissions from livestock production. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and livestock, which release methane in their flatulence, account for about 10 percent of U.S. emissions, according to the EPA.
- Republicans also took the opportunity to weaken financial regulation. Because why not let bank lobbyists write the laws that apply to banks?
- Nutrition is clearly not a priority—schools will be able to feed kids fewer whole grains and more sodium than new standards would have called for. And white potatoes will be included in the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition assistance program, something the potato lobby had been fighting for.
- Also on the losing side, truck drivers and anyone who might share a road with a truck:
In a victory for the trucking industry, the bill blocks new Transportation Department regulations requiring truckers to get two nights of sleep before starting a new work week. The regulation slashed a typical trucker's work week to 70 hours, down from 82 hours.
And there's more. So much more. Current retiree pension benefits will be vulnerable to cuts, the will of the District of Columbia's voters will be overturned when it comes to marijuana, and so on and so forth.