House Democrats haven't cared for many of this year's appropriations bills, so it was no surprise when David Obey compared the fiscal 2001 Interior spending bill, which moved through a House subcommittee Wednesday, to a "drowning man."
But the man's problem, according to the House Appropriations Committee's ranking Democrat, was not just his drowning, but that he was 25 feet from shore and the life preserver thrown to him only had a 15-foot rope.
"The sentiment is nice, but the result is not going to be all that helpful," cracked Obey, D-Wis.
Indeed, the bill providing funds for the Interior Department and other federal natural resources agencies contains more veto bait than perhaps any spending bill that has yet moved through the House and Senate Appropriations committees.
The bill, which was approved on a simple voice vote, would provide just $14.6 billion in discretionary spending, a cut of $300 million below fiscal 2000 and some $1.7 billion below the president's request. If the lack of funds weren't troublesome enough, the bill also includes at least two toxic provisions that will surely draw veto threats from the administration. One would prevent Interior from moving forward with a new ecosystem management plan for the Columbia River Basin and the other de-funds any national monuments declared since 1999.
Interior Subcommittee Chairman Ralph Regula, R-Ohio, said the subcommittee's allocation "created some very difficult challenges." But he maintained that the panel was able to give increases to the operations and maintenance accounts of the bill's primary agencies-such as the National Park Service and the Forest Service-which would ensure that their day-to-day operations are not impaired.
Regula also highlighted the bill's inclusion of $350 million in fiscal 2000 emergency spending to help combat one of the worst forest fire years on record.
The emergency designation was one of the few bright spots in the bill mentioned by Subcommittee Ranking Member Norm Dicks, D-Wash., who noted that current-year firefighting accounts would run out by the end of this month.
While the Interior Department and the Forest Service (which is actually under the jurisdiction of the Agriculture Department) would be able to fund ongoing firefighting activities through other funds, Dicks urged the Senate to free up the stalled fiscal 2000 supplemental spending bill so that appropriators could have a quicker and more reliable vehicle to supply the money than the troubled interior bill.
"Somehow, we've got to get it done," Dicks said.
Dicks then wasted little time attacking the rest of the interior bill as "inadequate," noting the tight allocation would prevent appropriators from funding many agencies under the bill at the same level as the previous year. In addition, Dicks said the bill would cut $500 million from the president's request for Indian health and education spending, and land acquisition accounts would be funded at only a "fraction" of what the president wants-some $164 million, compared to a $600 million request.
"The president will not sign this bill into law unless [these accounts are] significantly raised," Dicks said.
Dicks also lambasted the GOP leadership for insisting on including language written by Rep. James Hansen, R-Utah, chairman of the Resources Committee's park subcommittee, to prohibit the Interior Department from funding any national monuments declared by President Clinton since 1999. The provision has broad support among Western Republicans who claim the president has overstepped his powers in declaring new monuments, which they characterize as little more than federal land grabs.
So far this year, Clinton has designated four areas as national monuments-two in California and two in Arizona. The language would bar all expenditures for planning, designing or managing the new national monuments. Dicks complained that the provision would also affect any new road building or even law enforcement activities in those areas as well.
Dicks was even more critical of a separate provision added to the bill that would prohibit the government from pursuing an ecosystem management plan for the Columbia River Basin. Dicks said it would undermine nearly seven years of scientific research and staff time dedicated to preserving habitat and protecting endangered salmon species, while simultaneously allowing timber harvests to continue and dams to exist in the troubled river area.
Republican George Nethercutt, of Washington, defended the prohibition, however, saying the management plan does not comply with the Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Act, which requires the federal government to study how a new law would impact small businesses. Nethercutt warned that without such studies, the management plan would be sued repeatedly for noncompliance and stalled indefinitely.
Dicks said he had no problem with forcing Interior to do such a study, but he said preventing Interior from moving forward with the plan would result in even more lawsuits from both business and environmental interests.
A third add-on, which is reportedly not so problematic as the other two, would prohibit Interior from establishing a national wildlife refuge in the Yolo Bypass in California. The language was added at the request of Rep. Doug Ose, R-Calif.
As has been the case with many other spending bills this year, Democrats, knowing the bill will be vetoed anyway, offered no amendments. "We might as well get on with the hanging and see if we can resurrect the corpse somewhere down the road," Obey joked.
Among the bill's major funding accounts:
- $1.4 billion for the Park Service, an increase of $61 million over fiscal 2000.
- $1.3 billion for the Bureau of Land Management, an increase of $30 million over fiscal 2000.
- $345 million for National Wildlife Refuges, an increase of $22 million over current year funds.
- $164 million for land acquisition accounts, a cut from the president's request by nearly $440 million.
- $2.4 billion for Indian Health Service, an increase of $30 million over fiscal 2000 but nearly $200 million short of what the president requested.
- $508 million for Bureau of Indian Affairs education programs, an increase of $7 million over the current year but some $37 million les than the president requested.
- $120 million for BIA school construction programs, some $13 million less than fiscal 2000 but $170 million less than the president requested.
- $1.7 billion for BIA operation accounts, an increase of $18 million over the current year.
- $711.5 million for energy conservation programs, an increase of $33 million over fiscal 2000 but $137 million less than the president requested.
- $115.3 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities, the same as fiscal 2000 but $34.7 million below the president's request.
- $98 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, the same as fiscal 2000 but $52 million below the president's request.
- $75 million for Everglades restoration.