WASHINGTON, DC – Thursday, June 18, 2015 – U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, today announced full committee passage of the Fiscal Year 2016 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, which reduces the Environmental Protect Agency (EPA) budget and seeks to stop its burdensome rules and regulations.

“The actions by the Obama Administration’s EPA are the face of executive overreach, and I am pleased that this bill seeks to rein in this out-of-control government agency,” said Senator Shelby. “Not only does this bill cut the EPA’s budget by $500 million, it also seeks to block some of its most egregious and costly rules that stifle economic growth and job creation in Alabama.”

The FY16 Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill:

• Prohibits the EPA from forcing federal plans on states that do not support the Administration’s onerous greenhouse gas regulations.

• Prohibits the EPA’s rule redefining ‘waters of the United States,’ which will place thousands of streams, creeks, wetlands, ponds, and ditches throughout the country under the control of Washington bureaucrats instead of private property owners.

• Prohibits the EPA from lowering the ozone standard until 85 percent of counties in non-compliance with the current standard come into compliance.

• Prohibits the EPA from requiring duplicative financial surety rules on the mining industry.

• Continues to prohibit the EPA from regulating certain types of ammunition and fishing tackle.