Anti-EPA Riders excluded from Federal Budget Deal--PEI

[NaepcA1]

One of the factor's that contributed to last week's near miss of a government shutdown was omitted from the agreed-upon $38 billion in spending cuts that passed Congress Friday night.

Riders, which are essentially non-fiscal policy measures that are shoehorned into budget legislation, were being pushed by Congressional Republicans as a means of achieving right-wing objectives, such as stripping the Environmental Protection Agency of its power to regulate the Clean Air Act.

However, the most controversial of these policy riders were not included in the final bill, as Republicans were confronted with a last-minute deal to accept the spending cuts that had thus far been agreed upon, saving plans for the EPA, Planned Parenthood and mountaintop removal coal mining for a later date.

"At the same time, we … made sure that at the end of the day, this was a debate about spending cuts, not social issues like women's health and the protection of our air and water," said President Barack Obama in a statement Friday. "These are important issues that deserve discussion, just not during a debate about our budget."

Despite Republicans' failure to chop the EPA's regulatory power during this budget initiative, the party remains focused on the agency and what they argue is excessive government power over private business that should be relegated to Congress.

Last week, the Senate rejected a House-approved bill that stripped the EPA of the ability to regulate greenhouse gases as stipulated in the Clean Air Act – a measure that would have received the president's veto regardless.

"A lot of voices are making their opinions known that this is a defining moment," Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, told Politico. "In 40 years of the Clean Air Act, there's never been an assault like this."

Posting copied from http://www.propel-earth-initiatives.com