The annual Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill, which began its consideration as H.R. 2584 and ended as Division E of the Consolidated Appropriations Act ( P.L. 112-74 ), funds agencies and programs in parts of three federal departments (Interior, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services), as well as numerous related agencies and bureaus, including the Environmental Protection Agency. Among the more controversial agencies represented in the bill is the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), in the Department of the Interior (DOI). House floor consideration of Interior and Environment appropriations was not completed, and the Senate first considered these programs in the context of Division E of the conference report on a bill whose original subject was appropriations for military construction. The House next considered FWS appropriations in the context of the conference report for the same measure. As a result, the legislative history of Interior and Environment appropriations in general, and FWS specifically, is truncated relative to most years, and the emphasis below is largely on the final bill. Congress approved $1.48 billion for the agency for FY2012. The President had requested $1.69 billion (up 13% from FY2011); on July 12, 2011, the House committee approved $1.19 billion (down 21% from FY2011). (See Table 1 .) Most accounts and subaccounts were reduced relative to FY2011 levels. At the account level, percentage changes from FY2011 to FY2012 ranged from a reduction of 20.4% for the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund to an increase of 10.8% for Construction. This report analyzes FY2012 appropriations in a policy context, with reference to past appropriations. Floor action on Interior and Environment appropriations began on July 25, 2011, when the House began consideration of H.R. 2584 . Consideration continued to July 28, 2011, when the House rose, leaving H.R. 2584 as unfinished business. During floor consideration, there were three amendments affecting FWS; two were adopted, and one was rejected. The first amendment ( H.Amdt. 732 ; Bass, NH) increased land acquisition funding by $4 million for FWS, as well as making increases for specified other agencies, with offsetting reductions in funds for the Office of the DOI Secretary. It was adopted by voice vote. (In the end, P.L. 112-74 contained funding for land acquisition, though at a lower level than in FY2011. See " Land Acquisition .") The second amendment ( H.Amdt. 735 ; Dicks, WA) was also adopted; it removed certain restrictions in the bill concerning funding limitations for endangered species protection. ( P.L. 112-74 contained some limits on listing; see discussion " Endangered Species Funding .") A third amendment ( H.Amdt. 750 ; Dicks, WA), affecting judicial review of wolf management, was rejected; P.L. 112-74 contained no language regarding wolf management and judicial review. (See " Wolf Delisting ," below.) By far the largest portion of the FWS annual appropriation is the Resource Management account, for which Congress approved $1.23 billion for FY2012, down 1.5% from FY2011. Among the programs included in Resource Management are Endangered Species, the Refuge System, Law Enforcement, Fisheries, and Cooperative Landscape Conservation and Adaptive Science (formerly called Climate Change Adaptive Science Capacity). In the FY2012 FWS appropriations cycle several issues emerged: elimination of funding for the adding of new species to the list of those protected under the Endangered Species Act; elimination of funding for critical habitat designation; cuts in funding for fish hatcheries; restoration to near FY2011 levels for the National Wildlife Refuge Fund, a fund that provides payments in lieu of taxes to local governments for the presence of non-taxable refuge land—a program for which the President proposed no appropriation; elimination of annual funding for most land acquisition for the National Wildlife Refuge System; and response to the FY2011 legislative delisting of certain populations of gray wolves. Each of the points above will be discussed in the appropriate account's section below. Funding for the endangered species program is part of the Resource Management account, and is a perennially controversial portion of the FWS budget. Congress approved $176.0 million, up 0.3% from the FY2011 level of $175.4 million. The Administration's FY2012 request was $182.6 million. (See Table 2 .) The House Committee approved $138.7 million; the accompanying committee report, citing the absence of a reauthorization for the Endangered Species Act (ESA), gave statistics on the low rate for recovery of listed species as evidence that the ESA has failed. Over half of the House committee's reduction from FY2011 level came from elimination of funding for adding new species to the list of species protected under the ESA, and for the designation of new critical habitat for species. The reductions were contained in the tables accompanying the bill; but in addition, the committee's bill language itself reinforced that elimination by directing that "none of the funds shall be used for implementing subsections (a), (b), (c), and (e) of Section 4 of the Endangered Species Act, (except for processing petitions, developing and issuing proposed and final regulations, and taking any other steps to implement actions described in subsection (c)(2)(A), (c)(2)(B)(i), or (c)(2)(B)(ii) of such section)." The language would have prevented listing new species or changing a species from threatened to endangered, or a designating new critical habitat. It would have allowed action to delist species or to downlist species from endangered to threatened, although with no funding in the committee's bill for the listing program it is not clear what funds would have been available for such actions. On July 26, 2011, the House considered H.Amdt. 735 (Dicks, WA) to strike this language. Supporters of H.Amdt. 735 rejected the claim that the ESA has failed, and cited the continued existence of all but a few of the listed species struggling in the face lost habitat and other dangers as an alternative measure of success. The amendment passed (yeas 224, nays 202; roll call #652) on July 27, 2011. In the end, P.L. 112-74 contained limits on spending for listing species in response to petitions, for listing foreign species, and for designation of critical habitat. The limitations on listing foreign species or responding to petitions were not found in the previous appropriations bill; limitations on critical habitat designation have been a feature of appropriations bills for over 15 years. P.L. 112-74 reduced funding for consultation under Section 7 of the ESA by 1.5% from FY2011. Under Section 7, federal agencies are obliged to consult with FWS on their actions which may affect listed species, and obtain a biological opinion (BiOp) from FWS on whether the action might jeopardize the species. The BiOp may include reasonable and prudent alternatives for the agency action that would avoid jeopardy. Reduced funding for FWS to consult could delay federal actions, because the action agency might hesitate to open its actions to the citizen suit provisions of the ESA in the absence of the FWS BiOp. The Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund also benefits species that are listed or proposed for listing under ESA, through grants to states and territories. P.L. 112-74 provided $47.7 million, down 20.4% from the FY2011 level of $59.9 million. The program assists states with, among other things, the preparation of Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs). HCPs are developed for non-federal actions by state, local, business or private entities as a requirement for obtaining an Incidental Take Permit for actions that may affect listed species. For HCPs involving many actors, states may use their funds from this program to coordinate the HCPs, to develop a single umbrella plan on behalf of a region, or to acquire land to mitigate effects of a project. Reduction of state support leaves states with the option of funding some of these efforts alone, or leaving individual actors to develop their own plans. Taking the two programs together, the final bill projects savings in endangered species funding, compared to FY2011 levels, at 5.0%. Because Section 15 (16 U.S.C. §1542) authorizing ESA appropriations expired in FY1992, it is sometimes said that the ESA is not authorized. However, that does not mean that the agencies lack authority to conduct actions (§§4, 6-8, 10, and 11; 16 U.S.C. §§1533, 1535-1537, 1539, and 1540), or that prohibitions within the act are no longer enforceable (§9; 16 U.S.C. §1538). Those statutory provisions continue to be law, even when money has not been appropriated. The expiration of a provision authorizing appropriations does not end the statutory obligations created by that law. The U.S. Supreme Court has long held that "the mere failure of Congress to appropriate funds, without further words modifying or repealing, expressly or by clear implication, the substantive law, does not in and of itself defeat a Government obligation created by statute." Moreover, Section 11(g) (16 U.S.C. §1540(g)) "allows any citizen to commence a civil suit on his own behalf" on various broad, specified provisions of the act. This option would still be available, regardless of agency funding. Appropriations bills have been vehicles for action on the status of wolves. While P.L.