BILL SUMMARY: Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations Bill

Press Release

"This Interior-Environment bill is the result of a bipartisan effort to meet our trust and treaty obligations to Tribes, protect our lands and waters, and ensure clean air and clean water--all in the face of tight budget constraints. This bill maintains strong funding for critical programs that we have built up investments for over the past two years, including $100 million for environmental justice, $2.76 billion for aging water infrastructure, and $5.6 billion for wildfire suppression and preparedness. Ranking Member Murkowski and I also made targeted increases to address some of the most pressing problems across the programs funded in the bill, such as an increase of $82 million in funding to staff newly constructed Indian Health Services facilities, an increase of $12.5 million to address Tribal public safety and justice issues including tribal jails suffering from overcrowding and staff retention, $10 million to support housing for Firefighters and National Park Service staff who are facing skyrocketing housing prices, which is limiting hiring and staff retention, and an increase of $2 million for protecting people from the health impact of wildfire smoke. Finally, I'm fully committed to making sure that wildland firefighters don't get a pay cut on September 30th, and I look to a near-term supplemental funding package to lock in that funding."

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