Senate Approves Interior Spending Bill

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, November 3, 2003 (ENS) - The Senate today passed a $20.2 billion fiscal 2004 appropriations bill for the U.S. Interior Department, the Forest Service and related agencies. Conservationists say the legislation shortchanges several key programs and contains a number of damaging riders, but senators from both parties contend the bill is a decent compromise given fiscal constraints.

"Nobody should be surprised if they did not get everything they wanted in this bill," said Senator Conrad Burns, a Montana Republican and chair of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee in charge of the Interior Department. "Nobody got everything they wanted, not even this chairman."

The bill contains slight increases for most Interior Department agencies and programs, as well as for the Forest Service, and is generally in line with the funding levels requested by the White House.

It passed by a vote of 87 to 2, with Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a South Dakota Democrat, and Senator Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, voting against the bill.

Conservationists are concerned about the funding levels for the national park system. (Photo courtesy NPCA)

Burns told colleagues upset with funding levels that "the constraints of our allocation" would not allow further spending.

With the devastating California wildfires still smoldering, the Senate approved $2.5 billion within the bill for federal agencies tasked with implementing the National Fire Plan. The total, which is an increase of $280 million over fiscal 2003, includes $1.8 billion for the U.S. Forest Service and $694 billion for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to combat wildfires.

The bill has an additional $400 million in emergency firefighting funds for both agencies, which have had to shuffle more than $500 million from other programs to pay for fire fighting efforts this year.

This money will be on top of $500 million to fund wildfire efforts included supplemental appropriations bill to fund the U.S. war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan that the Senate passed earlier today.

In addition to the firefighting money, the bill provides $850 million for the operations of the BLM, a $30 million increase, and some $1.4 billion for the Forest Service, a $29 million rise over last year.

The National Park Service is provided with $1.6 billion in operating funds, up some $61 million over 2003 but less than the amount requested by the White House and some $178 million less than park advocates say is needed to address the critical needs of the national park system.

"Yet again, the National Park Service will not have enough money to adequately protect our parks or meet the needs of visitors," said Blake Selzer, director of the Americans for National Parks Campaign.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will receive $850 million, a $24 million increase from this year; this includes $391 million for the national wildlife refuge system.

The bill provides the U.S. Geological Survey with $950 million, up $30 million over 2003, and allocates $500 million for emergency assistance through the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency.

It contains $3 billion for the Indian Health System, $1.9 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and $212 million to reform the Indian Trust Fund.

Congress funded the Interior Deparment at levels in line with the budget request by President George W. Bush and Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton. (Photo by Paul Morse courtesy the White House)

The Interior Department has been mired in litigation over its longtime mismanagement of natural resource and public land royalties owed to Indian tribes. The fund dates back to 1887 and the U.S. government is believed to owe as many as 500,000 Native Americans a total of some $14 billion.

In September a federal judge ordered the Interior Department to fully account for the misplaced money, but this could cost the agency some $6 billion to $12 billion to determine.

A rider inserted by the conference committee bars the Interior Department from complying with the court order for up to 14 months.

The accounting ordered by the court "may or may not shed light on the ultimate solution of the trust problem," Burns said.

"It will do almost nothing to benefit the Indian people," said Burns, who urged Congress to fix the trust fund system.

The provision drew heavy opposition in the House, where opponents complained that it takes away a needed incentive for the Interior Department to tackle the issue.

Senator Byron Dorgan, a New Mexico Democrat, echoed some of those concerns and said the final provision gives him "great heartburn."

Dorgan said the language may be unconstitutional and will do little to remedy the sad state of affairs the trust fund has become.

A rider attached to bill will expedite some timber sales within Montana's Kootenai National Forest. (Photo courtesy U.S. Forest Service )

In particular, the portion of the fund dedicated to federal land acquisition took a 34 percent hit - falling from $313 million in fiscal year 2003 to $175 million in fiscal year 2004. The total is 52 percent below the fiscal 2002 funding level.

Conservationists say this reduction puts at risk valuable and special lands that willing sellers are ready to sell to the federal government.

"It is sad to say, but this final bill eats away at our nation's ability to protect its remaining wild and natural places," said Bonnie Galvin, of The Wilderness Society. "Wild places that could be protected will not be because of these cuts in conservation spending."

The bill also contains a handful of riders that critics say do nothing but undermine protection for public lands in order to benefit timber, oil, gas and grazing interests.

"Congress is up to its old tricks again - using must pass bills and stealth attacks to undermine our nation's environmental laws and chip away at protections for wildlife and our environment," said Mary Beth Beetham, director of legislative affairs for Defenders of Wildlife.

Language in the spending bill - inserted by Alaska Republican Senator Ted Stevens - would limit public challenges to timber sales in Alaska's Tongass National Forest. It imposes a 30 day statute of limitation for the public to seek review of 40 specific timber sales and orders judge to issue decisions of appeals within 180 days.

Stevens said the language is needed to aid the flailing Alaska timber industry, but critics argue there is no shortage of available timber within the Tongass.

A rider added by Burns will expedite environmental review for five salvage logging projects in the Flathead National Forest and would allow five similar projects to proceed in the Kootenai National Forest.

All ten salvage projects affect old growth stands within the two national forests, which are both in Montana.

A federal judge has blocked the Kootenai salvage projects because the Forest Service failed to conduct appropriate environmental review.

Another provision added to the conference report by Stevens eliminates a federal moratorium on oil and gas exploration and drilling in the waters of Alaska's Bristol Bay. It is the first formal erosion of the Outer Continental Shelf leasing moratorium and critics believe it could serve as the first step toward eventual removal of similar protections for the East and West coasts.

Ranchers pay far less to graze cattle on public lands than they do to graze on private lands, but supporters say there are ample conservation benefits. (Photo courtesy Conservation Beef)

The U.S. Forest Service and the BLM have a combined backlog of more than 5,000 permits, but many Western lawmakers are determined to provide relief to ranchers they say are dependent on federal public lands.

Critics believe the grazing program, which costs taxpayers some $128 million a year, is a clear case of corporate welfare that has caused severe environmental degradation throughout the Western United States.

"Poor grazing practices on public lands are turning clean, healthy streams into cesspools, and reducing once thriving grasslands and forests to barren wastelands," said Randy Moorman, legislative research associate with the non profit environmental law firm Earthjustice. "The riders that have been shoe horned into this bill are shameless handouts to special interests."