I am not referring to the classic Doors song (Into this world we're thrown) but to the welter of anti-environmental provisions (aka riders) Republicans have inserted into the Interior-EPA appropriations bill for FY 2016.

The roughly $30 billion legislation would fund EPA, all of the Interior agencies and the U.S. Forest Service. The GOP-controlled House of Representatives has saddled it with a number of anti-green policy riders that would forbid any appropriated funds to be used for:

• New greenhouse gas regulations by EPA, as well as tighter regulation on pollution sources extending from factory farm sewage lagoons to ozone. Lawmakers also forbade EPA from regulating emissions from backyard barbeques even though the agency has no such plans;

• Extending Endangered Species Act protections to a number of politically friendless creatures, ranging from the greater sage grouse to the lesser prairie chicken and from the northern long-eared bat to the Sonoran desert tortoise. The bill would even overturn the listing just earned by the Prebles meadow jumping mouse; and

• An array of other actions, including preventing national parks from banning disposable plastic bottles or President Obama from designating any more national monuments.

These pernicious riders are not limited to this bill. For example, Republicans are slashing the USDA's research budget by $500 million to shut down research on pollinator health, pesticide effects and sustainable agriculture.

We often see timid agency managers use the fear of Congressional backlash as the excuse for not executing the law, especially against the politically connected. The proliferation of these riders shows that keeping a low profile provides no political cover heck, the Republicans are even legislating against non-existent programs.

While the ultimate fate of these riders is unknown, the dynamics point to another legislative/executive stand-off, perhaps leading to a full or partial government shutdown and another round of sequestration cuts. The climax will likely come in September just as the fiscal year nears its end and Pope Francis comes to town. Perhaps, the Pope will have to work the halls of Congress to mediate the conflict, just as he did to break the 50-year freeze between the U.S. and Cuba.

Commentary by Jeff Ruch, executive director PEER

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