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Interior FY 2000 Budget Features Lands Legacy, Restoration, and Protection of America's Natural Treasures for the 21st Century
A visionary approach
that charts the right course for the Department
to meet the challenges of
the new millennium
The Interior Department's fiscal year 2000 budget request of $8.7 billion underscores President Clinton's commitment to restoring and protecting the nation's natural and cultural resources, and providing for more open green spaces close to home for families to enjoy, and improving living conditions for this and future generations of Native Americans.
"This budget is a visionary approach," said Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. "It charts a historic course for this Department to meet the needs of the new millennium and establishes our role as guardians of the past and stewards for the future."
The FY 2000 budget request focuses on priority initiatives such as President Clinton's landmark Lands Legacy Initiative, which is designed to protect and revitalize America's public land resources. The $1 billion Lands Legacy Initiative builds on and expands the Clinton Administration's efforts to save and restore America's natural treasures, with significant new resources to states and communities to protect local green spaces. The President will work with Congress to create a permanent funding stream beginning in fiscal year 2001, and also work to extend permanent wilderness protection to more than five million acres within 17 national parks and monuments.
"As communities keep growing and expanding, it's become every bit as important to preserve the small but sacred green and open spaces closer to home-woods, and meadows, and seashores where children can still play; streams where sportsmen and women can fish; agricultural lands where a family can produce the harvest that we often take for granted."
President Bill Clinton, January 1999
The Interior Department's FY 2000 budget request funds components with a broad theme of restoration, including protecting and understanding the natural and cultural resources' legacy of national parks, rebuilding wildlife and fisheries' resources, sustaining productive landscapes on public lands, restoring healthy lands and clean streams, taking care of America's vast facility infrastructure and ensuring the safety of DOI employees and visitors. The budget also represents the Administration's commitment to Native Americans, with a request for significant funding to meet the Department's trust and other responsibilities to American Indians.
"Beginning with President Theodore Roosevelt, the 20th century was largely about preservation--it was an important movement that said we must fence off our natural treasures before we ruin them," said Babbitt. "At the threshold of the 21st century, we've come to understand that man and his landscapes are intricately connected. This takes us into an era of restoration; of renewing our nation's treasures so they will continue to serve our needs and nourish our spirit for generations to come."
President Clinton's Lands Legacy Initiative
Providing local green spaces and the President's protection of the nation's cultural and natural treasures is the prevailing theme throughout the FY 2000 budget request. The FY 2000 budget calls for a 125 percent increase for this purpose and expands the federal efforts in the Interior Department, the Department of Commerce and the Department of Agriculture to save America's natural treasures; provide significant new resources to states and communities to protect local green spaces while reducing urban sprawl; and increased protection to our oceans, coasts and fishery resources. President Clinton's landmark Lands Legacy Initiative, the largest one-year investment in lands conservation ever--renews America's commitment to its natural environment.
A total of $579 million is requested for the Department of the Interior to support the President's $1 billion Lands Legacy Initiative, an increase of $354.5 million over levels appropriated in 1999. A key component of the Initiative is a 2000 Land and Water Conservation Fund, land acquisition request of $295 million, an increase of $84.5 million for preservation of the next great places. Acquisitions will focus on five major areas: the California Desert ($36 million), National Park Service (NPS) Civil War Battlefields ($22 million), the Everglades ($84 million), Interior Department units along the Lewis and Clark Trail ($8.5 million), and the Northern Forest ($13.2 million).
Also, as part of the Initiative, the NPS budget request includes $150 million in matching grants for land, or easements for urban parks, green-ways, outdoor recreation, wetlands, wildlife habitat, and $50 million in matching grants for open space protection planning. The Urban Parks and Recreation Recovery initiative, also funded in NPS, provides $4 million in matching grants for park restoration in economically distressed urban areas.
The budget includes an increase of $66 million for the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund as part of the President's Lands Legacy Initiative. This additional funding will be used to support collaborative species protection strategies with state and local governments, with $20 million to support additional Habitat Conservation Plan land acquisition grants and $43 million to expand financial assistance to state and local governments for species recovery plans, candidate conservation agreements, and safe harbor agreements.
Protecting Species and Restoring Habitats
The Administration is requesting $114.9 million to support the efficient and effective operations of the Endangered Species Program, an increase of $24.1 million over the FY 1999 operational level to implement voluntary partnership's efforts to reduce threats to species and preclude the need to list them under the Federal Endangered Species Act; support the escalating demand from non federal partners to allow economic development to proceed through the Habitat Conservation Planning (HCP) process; and pay for additional recovery plans and implementation of high priority recovery actions to prevent extinctions.
Restoring Parks, Refuges and Public Lands
Funding for the National Park Service Operations appropriations, the money that funds resource protection, visitor services, and programs in parks, is increased by a net of $102 million and seeks to revitalize management of park resources while at the same time improve services to the visitor. Included in the increase is $25 million to address specific program needs at 91 parks and the U.S. Park Police, and a $19.8 million increase for Natural Resource Science and Stewardship, designed to bring about greater overall accountability for protection and management of park natural resources Service wide.
Funds for operation of the National Wildlife System totals $212 million, an increase of $18 million, to fund critically required habitat protection and wildlife improvements projects on 200 refuges and efforts to eradicate invasive nuisance species on 48 refuges.
The FY 2000 budget request for the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) operating programs total $743 million, a $26 million increase. Increases will be targeted at improving rangeland health and for other land conservation, evaluation, and restoration measures.
The budget also includes $25 million to increase reclamation of abandoned coal mining by 15 percent, targeting programs that support the goal of the Administration's Clean Water Action Plan. Increases totaling $7.6 million in FWS, BLM, NPS, and BIA will be used to restore fish passage to historic spawning grounds, to restore natural populations of native fish stocks, and to prevent, control, and monitor the introduction and spread of aquatic invasive species into the nation's lakes and rivers. The restoration of native fish stocks will significantly improve recreational fishing opportunities for the nation's 50 million licensed anglers.
Restoring Ecosystems
Significant increases are proposed to continue the Administration's commitment to restoring and revitalizing the ecosystems and watersheds in some of America's most environmentally sensitive areas. The FY 2000 budget request proposes $75 million to continue implementation of the California Bay-Delta ecosystem restoration program initiated in 1998, the same level as in 1999. The request also includes $20 million to initiate other activities that are in accord with the CALFEDBay-Delta Program, such as projects to improve water use efficiency, water quality, and watershed management. The budget also supports $47.3 million for California's Central Valley Project Restoration Fund, an increase of $14.2 million.
Using Good Science
The FY 2000 budget request supports the Clinton Administration's unwavering adherence to the premise that good science must be the underpinning for natural resource management programs and policies. This philosophy has been critical to the successes in challenging restoration efforts for key ecosystems like the Everglades, Pacific Northwest Forest Plan, and California Bay-Delta.
The President's budget request of $838.5 million for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will be used to continue the enhancement of Interior's science programs. The USGS, the federal government's premier natural resource science agency, carries out some of today's most vital scientific research that affects and impacts the welfare of people nationwide. USGS researches, monitors, and issue warnings of natural hazards, assesses the nation's water supply, and improves the scientific understanding of the nation's fish, wildlife, and environment. The request includes $18.5 million in new funding to support science priorities that will address resource management issues and challenges to maintain diverse and healthy ecosystems.
Safe Visits
The FY 2000 budget request continues the Clinton Administration's commitment to addressing critical health and safety needs and critical resource's protection through its Safe Visits to Public Lands Initiative. An increase of $48.5 million, or 9.6 percent, in maintenance funding is requested for the BLM, USGS, FWS, and NPS.
Indian Education and Trust Management Reform
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is responsible for programs serving 558 federally recognized Indian tribes. The FY 2000 budget request of $1.9 billion, includes an increase of $156 million, which underscores President Clinton's deep concern and strong commitment to improve education and the education of Indian youths. This budget includes an additional $48 million for BIA school construction. The additional funds will support construction of two replacement schools and repair of existing facilities, and establishment of a $30 million Indian school construction bonding initiative. The proposed bonding initiative will support tribal participation in the President's 1999 school modernization initiative.
The budget request for the BIA includes an increase of $36.3 million for Tribal Priority Allocations, which provide funding for basic necessities and programs critical to improving the quality of life and economic potential on reservations. An additional funding of $34.6 million is requested for BIA Education to strengthen education programs at 28 tribal colleges and at elementary and secondary schools that will serve an estimated 53,000 Indian children in the year 2000.
An increase of $50.5 million is requested to support Indian trust fund management improvements to enable the Secretary to meet his commitment to reduce the 70-year-old Indian trust fund management problems. The budget provides resources needed to implement the core financial systems and data cleanup recommendations encompassed in the Trust Management Improvement Project's High Level Implementation Plan. The request also includes $10 million to continue implementation of the Indian Land Consolidation Project.
Guarding the Past
The President's commitment to guarding the past and saving America's treasures is reflected in the FY 2000 budget request of $30 million to continue efforts to address the extensive need for curation, protection and preservation of artifacts and properties nationwide, as part of the First Lady's Save America's Treasures Program. In preserving these artifacts, the nation can appreciate and use the lessons of the past to reawaken the spirit of our forefathers.
The budget also includes $5 million for NPS participation in the Administration's America's Treasures Online Program, an initiative to develop a national digital library of records, and $15 million, an increase of $6.6 million over 1999, for grants to Historically Black Colleges and Universities for badly needed repairs to historic buildings.
Prudent Management of the Outer Continental Shelf
Management of the Outer Continental Shelf play a significant role in the nation's energy picture. Revenues collected by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) from royalties derived from the federal offshore oil and gas program supports President Clinton's Lands Legacy Initiative. The MMS Royalty Management Program collects over $4 billion annually. These funds are distributed to 38 states, 41 Indian tribes, 20,000 Indian mineral royalty owners, and to U.S. Treasury accounts.
The FY 2000 budget for managing the nation's offshore mineral resources is $240.2 million, about $16.2 million above the 1999 level. The majority of the increases ($10 million) will go to updating the Service's computerized royalty management program to ensure continued effective royalty collections.
"As we prepare to be stewards in the next millennium, this budget will enable the Department to develop new approaches and innovative solutions for managing, restoring and protecting America's natural resources," Babbitt said.
The Department's FY 2000 budget request, subject to annual appropriations by the Congress, represents an increase of $832 million, or 10.6 percent over the 1999 appropriations.
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Note to Editors: The Interior Department's FY 2000 Budget and related information is available on the World Wide Web at: http://www.ios.doi.gov/budget