WASHINGTON— The House Appropriations Committee has passed a funding bill with massive cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and agencies within the Department of the Interior. The legislation slashes total funding for the EPA by 20% and guts its enforcement budget by $169 million, or nearly half compared to last year’s funding levels.

The bill also includes a historic number of anti-wildlife poison pill riders that would undermine the Endangered Species Act and other safeguards for the nation’s most vulnerable wildlife.

“It’s a disgrace that House Republicans want to dismantle decades of environmental progress and hand polluters unprecedented power over the health of our communities, public lands and wildlife,” said Stephanie Kurose, deputy director of government affairs at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This morally bankrupt bill will only lead to dirtier air, more toxic water, and countless species shoved over the extinction cliff. Future generations will pay the price for this staggering level of political irresponsibility.”

The bill would cut the Service’s overall budget by 5% and its listing budget by $7 million compared to last year’s levels, which were already the lowest since 2004. The listing program is in charge of determining which animals and plants deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act. The Service is currently facing a backlog of more than 400 species awaiting consideration for protection.

The legislation contains at least 21 harmful riders that would remove protections for dozens of imperiled animals including gray wolves, grizzly bears, wolverines, and freshwater mussels.

Other harmful riders include:

• Blocking protections for the greater sage-grouse.
• Blocking protections for the lesser prairie chicken, a highly imperiled ground-nesting bird.
• Blocking increased protections for the northern long-eared bat.
• Blocking protections for seven freshwater mussels in Texas.
• Weakening habitat protections for northern spotted owls and Canada lynx.
• Blocking reintroduction of grizzlies in the North Cascades and Bitterroot ecosystems.
• Prohibiting any federal agency from banning or restricting lead in ammunition or fishing gear.
• Blocking revisions to harmful Endangered Species Act regulations put in place during the previous administration.
• Codifying climate denialism into law by exempting federal land management agencies from updating their plans when new information shows endangered species are being harmed or killed on public lands.
• Resurrecting Florida’s unlawful wetland-destruction permitting program that harms wildlife across the state including Florida panthers and frosted flatwoods salamanders.

On Tuesday, a coalition of 80 conservation groups sent a letter urging House appropriators to reject the bill.