The Interior Appropriations funding measure Congress has now sent
to President Clinton's desk for signature will bring some welcome
support for wild resources, but still fails to meet many critical
needs and to eliminate worrisome doubts about the ability to
safeguard and restore America's wildlife and open spaces, according
to the National Wildlife Federation (NWF).
"This plan is a promise of too little, when America needs a
guarantee of much more," said NWF President Mark Van Putten. "We
remain committed to Congressional action that will take America all
the way to ensuring its legacy of healthy wildlife and wild places
and that makes certain the effort can't go off course."
Van Putten's remarks came as the Senate passed the Interior
Department appropriations bill on October 5, which contains a
six-year conservation funding plan. The House passed the bill
October 3 and the measure now goes to the White House where the
president is expected to sign it.
The Interior bill plan will provide new appropriations of $686
million this fiscal year for a variety of conservation programs, and
authorizes, but does not guarantee, additional funding for a
cumulative total of $12 billion over the succeeding five years.
"The plan going to the president is a basket of rosy promises
that may, or may not, be kept in the future, depending on the
prevailing political wind when Congress decides whether or not to
actually make the funds available," Van Putten said. "America
deserves more than promises. Honestly meeting our nation's wildlife
needs and providing our states and communities the resources they
must have to conserve open space requires more than promises."
A second significant concern is the measure's failure to provide
adequate funding directly to state conservation programs aimed at
protecting and restoring wildlife. Instead, the plan creates an
unwieldy arrangement under which states must compete for part of an
inadequate, federally-controlled conservation pot. "Even if they can
get a marginal amount of funding in the year-to-year competition,
states won't be able to rely on that funding into the future, or do
the long-term planning and priority setting that is vital to
success," Van Putten said.
Concerns with the appropriations measure were absent in the
widely-supported Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA) that
passed the House by a bi-partisan three-to-one majority in May, but
has been blocked from a Senate vote, despite support from 63
Senators.
CARA would guarantee nearly $3 billion each year for 15 years to
meet the wide ranging conservation needs of wildlife, habitat and
open spaces. Under CARA, $350 million annually would flow directly
to states for wildlife conservation on an assured basis. The plan
passed by Congress only appropriates $50 million for state wildlife
conservation for one year, while holding out the possibility that
more funding might become available over the succeeding five years,
all on a competitive basis.
"CARA, would do more to meet wildlife conservation needs than any
Congress has ever done before," said Van Putten. "We recognize the
hurdles confronting us to get it passed. At the same time, we know
it is the right thing to do. Despite the obstacles, our commitment
to CARA and the kind of improvements it would mean remains
undiminished. The fight for guaranteed, long-term conservation
funding continues."
In the floor debate on the Interior bill, Sen. Mary Landrieu
(D-LA), one of CARA's leading sponsors, said, "Let's not miss the
opportunity to do better. ... Since the session is not over, our
fight is not over."
"We agree with Sen. Landrieu wholeheartedly," Van Putten said.
"I'm confident that the same grass roots commitment that took us
this far and brought us some welcome new funding can take us the
rest of the way to the dollars and guarantees it will take to ensure
our natural heritage."
