Includes Big Spending for Natural Resources
From the March issue of The Forestry Source
 President Clinton's fiscal 2000 federal budget proposal capitalizes on a federal government budget surplus and the nation's robust economy. |
It has become an annual winter tradition in the nation's capital. After the President's State of the Union address in mid-January, the Clinton administration releases its budget proposal with much fanfare. The Republican Congress promptly declares it "dead on arrival." And the budget negotiation dance begins, hopefully ending sometime before October 1 when the budget must be approved or the federal government shuts down.
President Clinton's proposed fiscal 2000 budget released February 1 returns to programs that have proven popular and politically irresistible in the past, including those for the environment. Overall, the budget would increase government spending 2.2 percent over fiscal 1999 funding levels.
Republicans promptly declared they would rework the plan. "Big government has been reborn and reinvented in this budget," stated Senate Budget Committee Chair Pete Domenici (R-NM).
And from House Budget Committee Chair John Kasich (R-OH): "We're not going to have another quarter of a trillion dollars in new programs."
While it remains to be seen what funding levels Congress and the administration agree to, the budget proposal is a good indication of the White House's natural resources management priorities.
Clinton's proposal includes $34 billion in funding for environmental programs, a 5 percent increase over current spending. The proposal seeks new ways for delivering money to state and local governments to spend as they see fit, a sign that environmental power-sharing is taking a firmer hold than ever. The budget reflects the trend of delegating responsibility for management of federally mandated programs to the states.
The administration is emphasizing the states' role because it might help ease the strain between state and federal authorities over enforcement priorities and persuade Congress to increase environmental spending.
Several state officials said they were pleased by the shift to more local authority, particularly in the $1 billion Lands Legacy Initiative at the center of the environmental budget.
The broad-based, interagency effort is designed to preserve green areas and protect critical lands, oceans, and coasts. First unveiled January 12 and featured in the State of the Union address, the initiative "represents the single largest annual investment in protecting our green and open spaces since Theodore Roosevelt set our nation on the path of conservation nearly a century ago," according to Clinton.
As the department that encompasses most of the agencies that manage the country's natural resources, the Department of the Interior receives a major part of the funding for the Lands Legacy Initiative. Indeed, the President is calling for the largest funding increase in the history of the Interior Department, in part to support the Lands Legacy Initiative.
The USDA Forest Service, which manages 192 million acres of federal land in 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, also would benefit from increased funding levels. The proposal includes $2.82 billion in discretionary appropriations for the agency in fiscal 2000, an increase of $175 million over current funding.
A major portion of that increase is for the Lands Legacy Initiative. The Forest Service would see an extra $100 million as part of that program to protect habitat threatened by development, provide grants to states and local governments to protect urban forests and open space, and set up a revolving loan program to promote open space, limit sprawl, and improve air and water quality.
However, beneath the headlines about the massive funding increase and the Lands Legacy Initiative are a few proposals by the administration that would change the way business is conducted by the Forest Service. Here is a synopsis of those proposals:
County payments
As he did last year, Agriculture Secretary Dan
Glickman is proposing to sever the link between timber sale receipts and
payments to counties. The fiscal 1999 budget also included the proposal.
Citing declining timber revenues—and the resultant reduction in payments to
counties—the administration promised to send again legislation to create a
permanent indefinite appropriation to ensure predictable payments. The budget
proposal also includes an effort to "bail out" school districts that have
depended on logging revenue.
Timber Sales
The budget proposes mostly increases for Forest
Service programs, but the timber sales budget would decline by $30 million, to
$197 million, with an anticipated offering of 3.3 billion board feet
nationwide. The agency expects to offer 3.6 bbf this year. The budget also
proposes to recoup some of the direct costs of timber sales
preparation—including various surveys and marking of trees to be cut—at the
time of sale. The department's budget summary says the proposal is analogous
to a user fee, and will help offset proposed increases in discretionary
funding.
Forest roads
The administration proposes to reduce slightly the
funding for timber road construction, but wants to continue to strengthen its
efforts to repair existing roads and obliterate others. Still pending is a
proposal, made early last year, for a moratorium of at least 18
months on the construction of new logging roads in roadless areas
throughout the national forest system.
Off-budget account
The Forest Service also announced that it
would no longer charge overhead and indirect expenses to two off-budget funds,
the Knutson-Vandenberg trust fund, which is used for reforestation, or the
timber salvage and brush disposal permanent appropriation. The practice of
charging overhead to those programs generated considerable criticism last year
from both Western Republicans and environmental groups.
Watershed protection
The administration also is seeking a funding
increase of 14 percent in those programs that are related to watershed
protection and restoration. They include watershed improvements (up by one
third to $40 million), range vegetation management (up 28 percent to $37
million), $270 million of forestland management programs (a 5 percent
decline), wildlife and fisheries habitat (up 24 percent to $124 million), road
maintenance ($123 million requested, a 23 percent increase), and hazardous
fuels reduction (level funding).
Firefighting and preparedness
The administration has asked for
level funding of $561 million for firefighting. That includes a proposed $326
million for actual fire suppression and fuels management, including $90
million in contingency funds and $65 million to remove dead wood and other
debris that could fuel fires. For preparedness activities, including
organization and prevention, the administration proposes to spend $325
million, the same as current funding.
National forest system
Overall funding for the national forest
system, the agency's main operating account, which includes timber sales but
not firefighting, would see an increase of more than 4 percent. Within the
national forest system, spending on wildlife and fisheries habitat management
would increase by 24 percent; wilderness management by more than 23 percent;
soil, water, and air management by nearly 20 percent; and rangeland management
funding would see a 14 percent increase.
Forest research
In the forest research account, a 19 percent
increase would include $5 million for the Global Change Initiative, $6 million
for the Climate Change Technology Initiative, and $14 million for the
Integrated Science for Ecosystem Challenges program. The Forest Service would
expand projects to develop ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and
increase carbon sequestration of forests and forest soils.
Lands Legacy Initiative
The initiative will affect the Forest
Service in the following ways:
- The administration is requesting $118 million in Land and Water Conservation Funds for Forest Service land acquisitions. The figure is essentially level with 1999 funding, but more than twice that of previous years.
- The budget seeks $100 million—a 160 percent increase--in certain cooperative forestry programs, a part of the state and private forestry account. That includes $50 million for the agency's Forest Legacy Program, which was funded in fiscal 1999 at $7 million. The program pays for the purchase of easements on private land to prevent harmful development in sensitive habitat areas.
- Another $40 million (a 30 percent increase) would go to the Urban and Community Forestry Program, which provides grants to states and local governments "to establish, maintain or expand urban and community forests and related open spaces that serve to support viable communities and neighborhoods," according to a budget summary.
- A new $10 million revolving loan program is being sought for states, local and tribal governments, and nonprofit corporations and cooperatives for "smart growth land acquisitions, easement and land-use management." The Smart Growth Partnership Program is intended to help communities protect open space and increase "greenspace," limit sprawl and improve air and water quality, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The budget proposal is only the beginning of a long and arduous process. Those involved in the process—including the Society of American Foresters—will do their best to shape the outcome.