10-07-2000

ENVIRONMENT: Environmental Provisions Pose Roadblocks

A handful of environmental controversies delayed final approval of several
fiscal 2001 appropriations bills this week. Although Congress was prepared
to send the Energy and Water appropriations conference report to President
Clinton on Oct. 5, he has vowed a veto over the provision that blocks an
Administration plan to return the Missouri River to a more natural flow.
In addition, the Interior appropriations conference report, which has won
the Administration's support, bogged down in the Senate for several days
because the bill does not include a massive conservation plan that the
House passed earlier this year. Supporters of the $3 billion Conservation
and Reinvestment Act held up the Interior bill in order to increase the
pressure for a vote on the resources bill. The delay came after
appropriators stripped a handful of anti-environmental riders from the
Interior bill that the White House opposed. Meanwhile, the Interior bill
was also delayed because of a filibuster by Sen. Peter G. Fitzgerald,
R-Ill., who wants federal competitive-bidding regulations to apply to the
construction of the Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Ill.
Eventually, the Senate on Oct. 5 approved the Interior bill, which now
heads to the White House.


Brody Mullins/CongressDaily

National Journal