Efforts by Republicans in the U.S. House to block funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Enforcement Division didn’t get far as they were defeated late Wednesday.
Here’s how Politico’s Morning Energy Report laid out what happened:
“On Wednesday night , lawmakers voted down some Republican amendments targeting EPA – including ones to block funding for the agency’s Criminal Enforcement Division and slash EPA’s budget by 17 percent. But several other made the cut, including an amendment to block the Clean Energy Incentive Program and another to prevent federal agencies from paying attorneys’ fees when they lose environmental cases. The chamber also adopted by voice vote a pair of amendments to aid the city of Flint., Mich., in the wake of its lead contamination crisis. One would allow the city’s existing drinking water loans to be forgiven, and another would provide $3 million to test water delivered through a new pipeline in the works.
A pair of bipartisan amendments to block offshore drilling near Florida were defeated earlier in the day, as Pro’s Alex Guillén reports. Rep. Patrick Murphy, the leading Democrat vying to unseat Sen. Marco Rubio , was the lead sponsor of an amendment to block seismic testing in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. Republican Rep. David Jolly, who dropped out of the Senate race when Rubio got back in, led introduction of an amendment to block studies of drilling in the area.”