By Brian Hansen

WASHINGTON, DC, October 11, 2000 (ENS) - President Bill Clinton today signed the Interior Department's appropriations bill for the new fiscal year, calling it a "major leap forward" in the Administration's quest to preserve the nation's environment.

But a broad spectrum of critics were quick to denounce Clinton for signing the spending bill, which they say does not provide nearly enough funding to protect the nation's increasingly imperiled forests, coastal regions and wildlife.

Clinton made a tangential reference those criticisms as he signed the bill at a ceremony in the White House rose garden, saying that he and Vice President Al Gore "had hoped to gain even more" monetary resources to devote to conservation causes.

But the President was generally upbeat about the appropriations measure, especially a provision that will establish a land acquisition trust fund to be used for conservation purposes.

"It is a remarkable piece of legislation that provides a lasting legacy for our grandchildren by establishing for the first time a dedicated and protected fund that states, communities and federal agencies can use to buy and protect precious federal land," Clinton said. "It doubles our investment in land conservation next year, and ensures even greater funding in the years to come."

The bill provides a total of $12 billion in dedicated funding over the course of the next six years for conservation programs to protect parks, forests and coastlands. The bill will more than triple the funding expended on those types of conservation programs by 2006, the final year of its authorization.

Among the programs that will receive dedicated multi-year funding is the Federal Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which has been used to protect ancient redwoods in California, Civil War battlefields and the Appalachian Trail. The LWCF has also been used to protect Yellowstone National Park from mining.

The White House said new funding secured through the Interior Department's appropriations bill may be used to protect places such as the Big Sur coast in California, the Everglades in Florida, and the tallgrass prairie in North and South Dakota.

States and local communities will retain financial control over more than two-thirds of the newly secured conservation funds, the White House emphasized. The bill allows states and communities to channel those funds into a wide variety of conservation programs.

The bill also bolsters funding for wildland fire suppression and fuels reduction, Clinton noted as he signed the legislation. A total of $2.9 billion is set aside to address the economic and environmental impacts of this summer's western wildfires, an amount more than twice the current spending.

Other key aspects of the Interior Department spending bill include:

• A $400 million fund for programs to protect the nation's coastal environments, including programs designed to benefit endangered Pacific salmon, coral reefs, marine sanctuaries and estuarine reserves.

• An $817 million outlay for research and development of more efficient cars, trucks and buildings.

• $150 million in earmarked funds for maintenance work at national parks, wildlife refuges, national forests and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land holdings.

The final bill did not include any "contentious riders" that would have damaged the nation's environment, Clinton said. A host of what Clinton had dubbed "anti-environmental riders" had been tacked on to the bill in recent weeks, but the White House worked furiously to extricate them from the final version.

"This legislation is proof positive that when we sit down together and work in a bipartisan spirit, we can do things for the American people," Clinton said.

But the last minute negotiations proved to be politically damaging for the Administration, which now finds itself under fire from the same environmental groups that have long supported it.

Mark Van Putten, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, voiced a view shared by many mainstream environmental groups regarding the Administration's strategies in shaping the Interior spending bill.

Van Putten said the conservation funding secured in the Interior bill is a completely inadequate "band-aid" deal that "subverts the will of the American people and both houses of Congress."

Like many environmentalists, Van Putten maintains that the White House should not have agreed to abandon its support of the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA), a stand alone bill that would have provided significantly more funding for environmental programs than was secured through the newly signed Interior appropriations measure.

"The last minute deal between congressional appropriators and the Clinton Administration on the Interior appropriations bill may mean more money in the short term for land protection and wildlife conservation programs, but its not enough," Van Putten said. "Americans who care about their environment, their urban parks, and their historical sites deserve a vote ... on CARA, not just a short-term, band aid deal tacked on an appropriations bill at the last minute."

Environmental groups were not the only interests to voice their displeasure over the demise of the CARA bill. Objections to the compromise were also raised by a host of politically conservative organizations, such as the National Governor's Association.

"While we understand the need to promptly enact appropriations bills, the Governors continue to urge that legislation based on the elements of CARA be considered as the only viable option to the Interior conference agreement," the group wrote to Clinton and Congressional leaders during the negotiations process.

Although CARA had broad bipartisan support, key Republican appropriators threatened to filibuster the measure if it was brought to the floor of Congress in the waning days of the session.

The compromise proposal that broke the logjam, which passed today as part of the Interior funding bill, was drafted by bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Congressman Norm Dicks, a Democrat from Washington.

"This is the largest increase in conservation programs ever approved by Congress," Dicks said after Republican appropriators conceded to the compromise proposal he helped to draft. "This is a major victory for the Clinton Administration, and it represents a real consensus to move forward to acquire, preserve and maintain precious park lands and open spaces in America."