Multiple Republicans Haz Sadz About Environment, Job Cuts That Would Hurt THEMTHEMTHEM!!!

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Among the many lawmakers who protested the proposed elimination of programs that hit home was Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who in March signed a bipartisan letter urging President Trump to reconsider the budget's proposal to eliminate funds for the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), a small federal agency that aims to help the impoverished Appalachian region. That plea — along with countless others — was rebuffed by the White House, which this week sent its full fiscal 2018 budget request to the Hill once again requesting zero dollars for the commission. Capito yesterday said she was frustrated by the White House's refusal to back down. "We're trying to rebuild, get people back to work in Appalachia that have lost their jobs," she said in an interview.

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Murkowski said she has already "conveyed" the importance of U.S. EPA water grant programs to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt in a recent meeting, and yesterday told reporters she planned to press deputy Energy secretary nominee Dan Brouillette on the budget's proposal to reduce the Strategic Petroleum Reserve — a federal stockpile she jealously guards as an insurance policy against oil supply interruptions — in an afternoon meeting ahead of his nomination hearing before the panel today.

"I think you have an administration that has a pretty aggressive goal, and they've put down some pretty hard-hitting cuts," she told E&E News. "And I think our job now is to step up and make sure that these programs that are so important have that support that they need."

Other Republicans were blindsided by some of the proposals included in the budget. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) — a member of the ENR Committee who has fought for years to expand the sharing of federal offshore drilling revenues with coastal states — learned from E&E News that the White House wants to repeal a 2006 law that has sent hundreds of millions of dollars to his state. "I'll oppose that vigorously," he said, noting that the funds are intended to help the state shore up its battered coastline. "Coastline melting into the ocean is existential for us," he said. "We just need that to keep another [Hurricane] Katrina from bashing our state."

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