As the debt ceiling debate looms large, House Republicans have filled an appropriations bill with 39 riders that would curb environmental regulations, such as prohibiting the Bureau of Land Management from preserving new wilderness areas or loosening the enforcement and policing of mountaintop-removal mining and uranium prospecting near the Grand Canyon. There's no way the 39 riders will pass but some Democrats and environmentalists worry that some could make it through as the two parties negotiate, reports The New York Times. “You have a fatal political momentum,” said David Goldston, director of government affairs for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Idaho Republican Mike Simpson defended the riders: “Many of us think that the overregulation from E.P.A. is at the heart of our stalled economy.” The bill is currently under "open debate" on the House floor but it's passage isn't imminent, reports The Times, merely posing concern among environmental groups in the "coming months."

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John Hudson