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Science Quickly

Budget Bill Stealthily Affects Environment and Energy

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2639 Ratings

🗓️ 23 December 2014

⏱️ 2 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Congress took advantage of the pressure to pass a budget bill by adding riders that change rules concerning the environment and energy. Josh Fischman reports Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.

0:05.8

Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years.

0:11.0

Yacold also partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for gut health, an investigator-led research program.

0:19.6

To learn more about Yachtolt, visit yawcult.co.

0:22.7

.jp. That's Y-A-K-U-L-T.C-O.J.P. When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacolt.

0:33.3

This is Scientific American's 62nd Science. I'm Josh Fishman. Got a minute?

0:39.0

In last week's pre-Christmas rush, the U.S. Congress slammed together the $1 trillion federal budget bill for 2015 just before funds ran out.

0:48.5

But the bill wasn't all about the money.

0:51.0

Congress took advantage of the fiscal scramble to change rules about the environment and

0:55.0

energy, which do not belong in appropriation bills. Normally, such changes are encoded in what are called

1:01.3

laws and are debated out in the open. But the budget bill is a chance for Congress to slip in

1:07.0

controversial rules, called riders, without much debate. If members object, the bill

1:12.6

stalls, and the government shuts down, and no one wants to be blamed for that fiasco.

1:17.6

So the riders gallop in. The Environmental Protection Agency got its budget, for instance,

1:22.6

but with strings attached. Although agriculture is a major source of atmospheric methane, the EPA now is

1:29.3

prohibited from using its money to require farmers to report greenhouse gas emissions, and the agency

1:35.6

cannot regulate farm ponds and irrigation ditches under the Clean Water Act. In another example,

1:41.4

the Department of Agriculture must speed up permits for companies making genetically modified organisms,

1:47.0

and the feds must loan money to firms to build coal-fired power plants overseas.

1:52.0

That requirement reverses a previous ban.

1:55.0

These rules and others last through September 2015 when this budget bill runs out. And then if history is any guide,

2:03.3

the whole stealth legislation process will start all over again.

...

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