Appropriations committees gained power only as authorization committees faltered.

Evidence

Since the 1970s, there had always been tension within Congress between members overseeing authorization and members overseeing appropriation. Those members of Congress who sat on the authorization committees, especially in the 1970s, were frequently more accepting of the environmental protection premises of the statutes Congress was then enacting than were members of the appropriations committees. During the 1970s and most of the 1980s, the authorization committees took the leadership role in environmental policy matters. However, as their ability to enact legislation generally waned during the 1990s, the appropriation committees became correspondingly more powerful. Indeed, appropriation riders became a common congressional legislative technique. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 704

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Congressional stalemate shifted environmental lawmaking power to appropriations riders. — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 703