12-23-2000
ENVIRONMENT: The 106th Suddenly Turns a Little Green
Although the 106th Congress will never be accused of coddling Mother
Nature, it managed nonetheless to do two very good deeds for her: It
launched the largest ecosystem rescue ever attempted-a restoration of the
Everglades-and passed a record spending package for a wide range of
conservation programs.
"Compared to what we expected-and we expected very little-[2000] will
end up being a pretty good year," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president
of the Defenders of Wildlife.
The six-year, $12 billion conservation package-which would pay for land
acquisition, wildlife habitat improvements, and other programs-offered a
reason for environmentalists to celebrate. The package virtually
guarantees a six-year money stream for the Land and Water Conservation
Fund, a 34-year-old program for buying land for conservation and
recreation, which has been chronically shortchanged. "It's the best
conservation funding law that's been enacted in my lifetime," said
Schlickeisen, who is 59. "This is a hell of a big deal."
However, the conservation package fell far short of the originally
proposed Conservation and Reinvestment Act, through which
environmentalists had sought $45 billion over 15 years. The CARA bill
became so huge that it collapsed under the weight of its local pork barrel
spending. Moreover, western Republicans feared the legislation would put
larger swaths of their states in government hands, and appropriators were
loathe to give up control of so much money under the bill's unique
guarantees, which would have locked in funds for certain projects over the
next 15 years.
"Losing CARA was a big disappointment for us," said Jim Lyon of
the World Wildlife Fund. "CARA had broad public support-from soccer
moms to sportsmen, from mayors to governors-and had congressional support
in huge numbers. It was a sure thing, yet Congress couldn't get it
done."
The Everglades rescue stood out as a monument to bipartisan cooperation
among political leaders and a broad coalition of South Florida interest
groups. The measure that would launch the Everglades restoration with a
$1.4 billion authorization was part of a $5.5 billion package of
miscellaneous water resources projects that easily swept through the
Senate on an 85-1 vote. Then the Everglades measure breezed through the
House, 394-14, as part of a $6.6 billion water projects package. The
biggest hurdle came in conference committee, where negotiators worked for
almost two weeks to whittle away hundreds of millions of dollars worth of
water projects requested by individual House members.
Meanwhile, lawmakers tried to tack on to appropriations bills a record 72
riders aimed at weakening rules for protecting the environment or
endangered species, according to Mary Beth Beetham, the director of
legislative affairs for Defenders of Wildlife. Fifty-three of those
proposals passed, but the Clinton Administration wielded veto threats to
defeat the worst of them, said Heather Weiner of Earthjustice Legal
Defense Fund.
For instance, the Administration foiled an effort during the session's
final hours by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, to waive protections for the
endangered Steller sea lion for the benefit of commercial fishermen in
Alaska. The Administration and Stevens agreed to keep the species
protections in place, but to pay $30 million to individuals and businesses
affected by the rules.
Environmentalists took their lumps over the VA-HUD appropriations bill. It
carried nine riders that will delay Environmental Protection Agency
actions, including the issuance of tighter limits on arsenic in drinking
water and proposals for purifying diesel fuels and cleaning up six
contaminated rivers.
Most of the potentially damaging riders regarding the use of public lands
fizzled-perhaps because of Administration resolve, or perhaps because this
was an election year, said Dave Alberswerth of the Wilderness Society.
"Sometimes," he said, "the most significant victories are
the bills that don't get passed."
Cyril T. Zaneski
National Journal
