In FY2022 Interior Appropriations Package, Chair Pingree Secures 20% Funding Boost to Confront Climate Crisis, Conserve Public Lands, Support Tribes

Legislation creates first-ever Civilian Climate Corps, fosters green job growth, and expands environmental justice programs

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Chair of the House Appropriations Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) today announced that the full House Appropriations Committee has approved the FY2022 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, which increases appropriations by more than 20 percent above Fiscal Year 2021. 

 

“We must confront the looming climate

emergency, but we can also use this moment as an opportunity to create a green economy with good paying jobs. As Chair of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, I’m proud that our bill will care for our planet, fight the climate crisis, return science as the foundation for decision making, and meet our trust obligations to tribal nations,” Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Chellie Pingree said. “This bill confronts the climate emergency head on by launching the FDR-style Civilian Climate Corps and centering environmental justice in our efforts to hold polluters accountable. Coupled with the eleven other appropriations bills, we’re setting our nation on a better and brighter course out of this pandemic. The passage of this bill by the full Appropriations Committee is a meaningful step on our path towards a clean energy economy.”

 

Watch Pingree’s opening remarks to the House Appropriations Committee on this legislation here.

 

Highlights of the bill include: 

• Creates good-paying American jobs through investments in renewable energy development, including offshore wind, and a national initiative to reclaim abandoned mines and cap orphan oil and gas wells
• Confronts the climate crisis by expanding environmental enforcement efforts, creating a Civilian Climate Corps, and launching a renewed focus on land and water conservation
• Honors the federal government’s responsibilities to Native Americans and supports Native American families by investing in a strong and resilient Indian Country, including through education and health care programs
• Dramatically expands environmental justice efforts to address unacceptable pollution in communities of color
• Makes important investments in the arts and humanities to provide relief to our creative economy, which has been devastated by COVID-19  

  

A summary of the Fiscal Year 2022 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies bill is available online here.

 

Pingree has served on the House Appropriations Committee for the past seven years and was elected Chair of the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee in January 2021. As Chair, she oversees discretionary spending for the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, US Forest Service, and several agencies related to the arts and humanities. More information about her time as Chair can be found at pingree.house.gov/interiorapprops. She also serves as the co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Arts Caucus.