Fish Conservation Overridden in Final Omnibus Spending Bill

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, January 23, 2004 (ENS) - The U.S. Senate approved the $375 billion omnibus appropriations bill Thursday after Democrats failed to muster enough votes to further delay action on the controversial spending package. The vote clears the way for President George W. Bush to sign the legislation, which contains funding for about half the federal government amid a glut of contentious riders and policy prescriptions.

Country of origin food labeling was delayed, and fish conservation measures were discarded in the legislation's final version.

Critics decried the process by which the bill was crafted and blasted the Republican leadership for fiscal irresponsibility and for adding special interest provisions to a must pass piece of legislation.

Arizona Republican Senator John McCain called the omnibus "a living, breathing argument that this system is broken."

The bill passed by a vote of 65 to 28 - the House approved the measure in December. Senate Democrats successfully blocked a vote on the bill in December, but a final effort to continue that hold failed Thursday by a vote of 61 to 32.

The omnibus bill emerged because Congress managed to pass only six of the 13 appropriations bills needed to fund the federal government during the current fiscal year, which began on October 1, 2003.

Alaska Republican Senator Ted Stevens crafted much of the omnibus spending bill. (Photo Office of the Senator)

These departments and the related agencies have operated at current monthly funding levels since October 1, 2003. Proponents of passing the omnibus spending measure argued that the Senate could not afford to continue along this route and that defeating the bill would shut down much of the federal government.

"I know the harm that is being done to a lot of people all over the country by these bills not becoming law when they should have," said Senator Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "This bill is a good consensus and it is good for this country."

Bitter disputes over the vast array of policies affected by the bill - including media ownership, overtime pay and country of origin labeling requirements for meat and vegetables - pushed debate over funding levels for federal agencies and departments into the shadows.

Democrats accused the Republican leadership of hijacking the conference process used to iron out differences between House and Senate over their separate appropriations bills.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, said "a cabal in the dark of night" overturned positions adopted by the majority of Senate Republicans and Democrats.

"Everything I read in civics books … is just being upended and thrown out the window," said Senator Hillary Clinton, a New York Democrat. "Apparently majority vote is no longer the rule in the United States Congress."

But Republicans rejected that criticism and said the bill is an example of the challenges of forging agreement on such a massive piece of legislation.

"I do not know of any time we have tried to be more bipartisan than in the seven bills within this omnibus," Stevens said. "I believe this is a good bill. I think this Congress ought to congratulate itself."

Democrats failed to strip a provision that delays country of origin labeling requirements for U.S. food producers. (Photo courtesy Factory Farm Project)

Supporters of the requirement argue that the majority of the public supports such labels, in particular in light of the discovery of mad cow disease in a U.S. dairy cow last month.

"If you buy a hunk of meat, you ought to know where it came from," said Senator Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat.

Utah Republican Senator Robert Bennett, a Senate negotiator for the final omnibus bill, said the language on country of origin labeling reflects a legitimate compromise on a contentious issue.

The House wanted to kill the requirement outright, Bennett told colleagues.

"This is a compromise that I view that as a win for the Senate position," he said.

Three riders were inserted into the bill by Senator Stevens to change fishery policies in his home state, chief among them a provision that sets up a system of processor quotas for some Alaskan crab fisheries.

The plan would force crab Bering Sea crab fishermen to sell 90 percent of their catch to specified processors, who would be allocated a set share of the total allowable catch.

Supporters, including the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, say the plan would provide the processing industry with needed guarantees and predictability.

But conservationists and many Alaska fishermen say it gives the processing industry unfair leverage and control over the market and will turn Alaska crab fishermen into sharecroppers.

"We are creating a government mandated cartel," McCain said.

There are too many boats chasing too few crabs in Alaska waters. (Photo courtesy Alaska Department of Fish and Game )

Federal fish managers and conservationists believe the fishery has not yet recovered and note that part of the decision to close it was to provide prey species for endangered Steller sea lions.

A third fisheries rider added by Stevens will set up a pilot program that would reopen a rockfish fishery - a program that has been twice been rejected by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.

Critics believe the program in effect privatizes a federal fishery.

Additional language in the bill shifts the responsibility for negotiating and evaluating international ocean policy agreements from the U.S. State Department to the Secretary of Commerce.

The initial proposal for this move drew criticism for Secretary of State Colin Powell, who raised concerns about its impact on his department's ability to address issues of ocean policy, marine pollution and global overfishing.

"I am dismayed that the appropriators would attempt to transfer these powers between government agencies without any public or expert review and debate," McCain said.

Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, defended a provision tacked onto the bill at her request to delay implementation of stricter fishing restrictions for New England groundfish stocks until the end of fiscal year 2004.

Collins says the restrictions, which were set to enter effect on May 1, 2004, must be revised because they are "fundamentally unfair to Maine's fishing economy."

But Collins' fellow Maine Republican, Senator Olympia Snow, said the rider "threatens to send New England groundfish management into a tailspin."

A rider added to the EPA budget prohibits states from adopting California's pollution standards for small nonroad gasoline and diesel engines.

Under an amendment to the Clean Air Act, California is the only state with its own authority to enact its own emissions standards - as long as they are stricter than federal standards.

Missouri Republican Senator Kit Bond tagged a rider onto an appropriations bill to curb regulation of emissions from lawn and garden equipment. (Photo courtesy Senator Bond's Office)

The engines in question are primarily used to power lawn and garden equipment, such as lawn mowers, generators, and weed cutters - Bond acted at the urging of engine manufacturer Briggs & Stratton which is based in Missouri.

The company says allowing other states to adopt California's standards would force it to move jobs overseas, but critics note that the engine manufacturer's financial disclosure filings with the federal government do not support this claim.

Another rider extends the authorization of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to spend $148.4 million deepening the lower Columbia River and estuary by three feet.

Environmentalists fear this dredging would degrade the lower Columbia River and its estuary, habitat identified by scientists and a federal recovery plan as critical to the recovery of threatened and endangered Columbia River salmon.