Capitol Hill Report - Defenders of Wildlife

Issue 3

October 6, 2000

October 14

Target adjournment (Continuing Resolution passed)

For a current list of the status of all 13 federal appropriations bills click here: http://lcweb.loc.gov/global/legislative/appover.html

An historic $12 billion conservation funding agreement was reached by Congressional budget negotiators and the White House to provide new, dedicated funds for such activities as the fight against urban sprawl and preservation of forest lands and the nation’s coasts. This agreement - part of the Interior Appropriations conference report - is a product of a two-year effort by environmental organizations, including Defenders of Wildlife, the Administration, and Congressional supporters. The House overwhelmingly passed the conference report on Tuesday, October 3, by a vote of 349-68. The Senate vote yesterday was 83 to 13. The bill is expected to be signed by the President.

“For federal and state land acquisition programs, the legislation establishes a new, multi-year, multi-billion dollar, dedicated fund that replaces the current paper funding authorization that in years past has only led to ever larger ‘conservation deficits’,” said Rodger Schlickeisen, President of Defenders of Wildlife. “These critically needed funds will help protect the last vestiges of open space, wildlife habitat, and wildlands across our country before they are lost forever.”

The package sets aside dedicated funding over the next six years for numerous conservation programs, including the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). Although the LWCF was established in 1964 to provide significant annual funding for federal and state land purchases for conservation and recreation purposes, the program has been chronically underfunded by past congresses and presidents, who have diverted the funding to other programs. Funding is also provided for other important conservation programs including ones to aid endangered species and other declining wildlife, fight urban sprawl, preserve forest land, protect coasts, and promote historic preservation. Over the next six years, the dedicated fund for all the programs totals $12 billion - almost all of which is new funding. The name of the fund is the Land Conservation, Preservation, and Infrastructure Improvement.

The funding package is a compromise between a Lands Legacy proposal made by President Clinton in his February budget request to Congress, popular bipartisan legislation called the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA) and a proposal made during negotiations by Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA). CARA has the overwhelming support of environmentalists, mayors, recreational interests, historic preservationist advocates and others, but with congress rushing to adjournment, time is running out on this legislation before it can be finalized and approved by the Senate. Efforts to approve CARA continue, but the Senate’s majority leader has thus far declined to take it to the full Senate for a vote.

“It may be a 425-foot home run instead of a 450-foot home run, but it’s a home run. This is the most important conservation funding legislation in our lifetime,” said Schlickeisen.

The agreement also sets aside funding for coastal and marine conservation that must still be allocated to specific programs in the Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill (see story in riders section), but environmentalists remain concerned over efforts underway in the Senate to allow these funds to be used for harmful activities in the coastal zone. Harmful uses of coastal funding has been one of the points of contention in the CARA legislation. “These precious conservation dollars are needed to protect the fragile coastal zone, not further damage it with new roads, ports, and other harmful infrastructure, “ Schlickeisen declared.

The six program categories under the Interior Conference Report agreement are:

Federal and state Land and Water Conservation Fund acquisition programs, funded in FY 2001 at a total of $540 million, including $293.9 million for Interior Department agencies, $155.5 million for the U.S. Forest Service and $90.5 million for states, state and other conservation programs (including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's North American Wetlands Conservation Program, the cooperative endangered species fund);

- New state wildlife grants program, U.S. Geological Survey science programs, and forest legacy projects) funded at $300 million;

- Urban and historic preservation (including Urban Parks and Recreation Recovery, the Historic Preservation Fund, Youth Conservation Corps, and urban and community forestry) funded at $160 million;

- Federal maintenance projects such as the repair and rehabilitation of existing facilities and roads in the four land management agencies funded at $150 million; - Payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) funded at $50 million;

- Additionally, funds allocated under the Interior bill for the new program will increase by $120 million a year over a six-year period and can be allocated among the various eligible programs.

This week, the Senate voted 57 to 37 to approve the FY2001 Energy and Water Appropriations conference report, including the attached Missouri River rider. Despite the traditional reluctance of many Senators to vote against a spending conference report there were more than enough votes to sustain a veto and at least several Senators who voted for the conference report indicated that they would support a veto if the rider is not removed. The FY 2001 Energy and Water conference report is $1.8 billion higher than the original House-passed bill, $935 million higher than the Senate-passed bill and $2.4 billion higher than the FY 2000 version. Nearly 250 individual Army Corps projects were added and more than 150 were given increases above what the administration had requested. The White House immediately issued a statement after the vote calling the bill "deeply flawed" and promised that the President would "veto this bill when it reaches my desk." According to the White House statement, "an anti- environmental rider attached to the bill would not only jeopardize the survival of three threatened and endangered species, but would also establish a dangerous precedent aimed at barring a federal agency from obeying one of our nation's landmark environmental statutes [The Endangered Species Act]."

Supporters of the Missouri River rider, which includes all of the Missouri congressional delegation and Governor Mel Carnahan, have been pressuring the White House by saying that the President's veto could cost Al Gore and the Democrats the state in the upcoming elections. As a result, the White House is now negotiating with Senator Kit Bond (R-MO) to reach a compromise and modify the rider language so that it is no longer objectionable. After the vote, Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Energy and Water subcommittee, pointed out that President Clinton had signed similar language in four previous bills. Above all, the environmental community remains very concerned that any deal on the Missouri River rider insures that the survival and recovery of the piping plover, least tern and pallid sturgeon would not be jeopardized.

DEN members in states surrounding the Missouri River’s range were sent an alert requesting them to send an e-mail to the White House thanking the President for his support of the conservation community’s concern for wildlife and habitat in and along the river and his pledge to veto the bill. The President is expected to veto the bill soon after he receives it from Congress.

Additional Anti-Environmental Riders in Interior Appropriations Conference Report

On the positive side, Senator Slade Gorton's (R-WA) anti-salmon rider blocking any efforts to breach the four lower Snake River dams was removed, as was Representative Jim Hansen's (R-UT) San Rafael Swell rider. In addition, the language on the 3809 hardrock mining regulations was modified to the point where it was no longer objectionable. However, Senator Pete Domenici’s (R- NM) fire-salvage/fuel reduction rider remained. While the Interior conference report did accept the Administration's $1.6 billion fire initiative, the funding was allocated differently than requested and still amounted to a $240 million increase from the Domenici rider for Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. This and other increased funding for timber in the bill could open the door to a significant increase in logging on public lands.

Another of the "old riders" still on Interior is Senator Domenici's automatic renewal of permits for grazing on federal lands if the renewal process, including environmental impact statements, could not be completed before expiration of existing permits.

The House is also expected to take action on the FY 2001 Defense Authorization bill conference report this week. The House Defense Authorization bill (H.R. 4205) contains a provision expressing a "Sense of Congress" that the highly controversial expansion of Ft. Irwin in theMojave Desert should be allowed to proceed. Unfortunately, the area proposed for the expansion would severely impact one of the healthiest remaining populations of the desert tortoise. Desert tortoise populations throughout Southern California continue to decline and are critically imperiled in much of the region. In addition, the House Defense Authorization bill also contains a rider to block a lawsuit on low-altitude military overflights.

There are still other anti-environmental riders in play on the various spending bills with the possibility that others could be added. For more complete information on the various riders, click here http://www.defenders.org/wildlife/riders/riders.html

A key development in the Commerce-State-Justice Departments Appropriations bill is the allocation of an additional $400 million for coastal programs set aside in the new Land Conservation, Preservation, and Infrastructure Fund established in the Interior bill. Both Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Trent Lott (R-MS) are reportedly pressing to direct a significant portion of that funding to harmful uses in the coastal zone - such as new roads and ports - rather than coastal and marine protection. The coastal programs funded under the Commerce-Justice- State spending bill would increase by $40 million each year over a six-year period from the $400 million base provided in FY20001.

In the Water Resources Development Act of 2000 (WRDA), the Senate approved $1.4 billion to begin restoration activities in the Florida Everglades. The Everglades is home to more than 300 bird species, 11,000 species of plants, and numerous species of fish and marine mammals like the endangered Florida manatee. The Everglades also provides some of the last remaining habitat for 68 federally listed threatened or endangered species, including the American crocodile and the Florida panther. Through WRDA 1992 and 1996 Congress asked the Army Corps of Engineers to review the network of levees and canals to determine how it should be changed to benefit the Everglades ecosystem. The resulting report, the Central and South Florida Project Comprehensive Review Study (Restudy), was submitted to Congress in July,1999. WRDA 2000 takes the restoration process one step further by actually providing the funds for the Corps’ plan. All eyes now look to the House who has not even begun movement on Everglades restoration. WRDA 2000 has not moved out of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee due to an unrelated labor dispute.

DEN members were sent an alert requesting that they send a fax to their Congressional representative urging them to step forward and begin action on moving Everglades restoration through the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and to the floor. As of Friday, almost 3,000 DEN members have sent faxes, and more are encouraged to do the same.

This week, Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has introduced the Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2000 (ESRA; S. 3156). S. 3156 is very similar to the House Endangered Species Act reauthorization bill (H.R. 960), which already has 102 cosponsors. Although Senator Lautenberg is retiring at the end of this session, his Senate ESRA bill is an important milestone and will serve to lay the groundwork for efforts to protect and strengthen the Endangered Species Act in the next Congress.

The DEN Capitol Hill Report is a new free publication of Defenders of Wildlife reporting on the latest legislative information on wildlife and conservation issues in Congress. The DEN Capitol Hill Report will be available as a regular link to each DENlines newsletter and can also be viewed on Defenders website. Content for this publication is drawn from a variety of legislative sources, including significant content from the Grassroots Environmental Effectiveness Network (GREEN) and the Endangered Species Coalition.