American Rivers Update, 11/29/99

VIEW THIS ON THE AMERICAN RIVERS WEBPAGE WITH DIRECT LINKS TO THE ACTUAL BILLS!!
(Select the following to go to:) http://www.amrivers.org/policynew.html

American Rivers Policy Update For the week of November 29, 1999

SUMMARY WRAP-UP ISSUE

Note this is the last regular Policy Update until Congress reconvenes in January.

With appropriations finally finished, Congress has adjourned for winter recess and will not return until January. This week s policy update is a review of major river-related legislation of the first session of the 106th Congress.

APPROPRIATIONS
ENDANGERED SPECIES
- Senate Moves Critical Habitat Bill:
- Endangered Salmon:
PARKS AND PUBLIC LANDS
RIVERS AND TRAILS
WATER RESOURCES
- WRDA Passed After Much Delay:
- Coastal Protection Bills:
LINKS TO PAST UPDATES:

APPROPRIATIONS

Agriculture-Rural Development-Related Agencies Appropriations Bill:

Congress passed the FY 00 funding bill for Agriculture and Related Agencies in early October, and President Clinton signed it into law on October 22 (PL 106-78). Discretionary spending in the bill, not including emergency spending, totaled $14 billion, $0.5 billion below the Administration s request. The Natural Resources Conservation Service received $813 million, including $661 for conservation operations, $10 million for watershed planning, $99 million for watershed and flood prevention operations, $35 million for resource conservation and development, and $6 million for a forestry incentives program. The measure limited the Wetlands Reserve Program to 150,000 acres and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program to $174 million. The House and Senate bills were H.R. 1906 and S. 1233 respectively.

VA-HUD-Independent Agencies Appropriations Bill:

President Clinton signed the VA-HUD-Independent Agencies funding bill for FY 00 on October 20 (PL 106-74). The bill includes $7.6 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency, up from $7.5 billion in FY 99. Of the total, $3.5 billion is for EPA s operating budget, $1.4 billion for superfund programs, $5 million for the Office of Science and Technology, and $3 million for the Office of Environmental Quality. The measure provides $1.35 billion for the clean water state revolving loan fund and $820 million for the safe drinking water revolving loan fund.

Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill:

On September 29, President Clinton signed the FY 00 appropriations bill for Energy and Water Development (PL 106-60). In conference, Congressional negotiators agreed to a total funding level of $21.3 billion for the bill, including $4.14 billion for civil works programs by the Army Corps of Engineers flood control, shoreline protection, and navigation. The figure, $246.5 million more than requested by the Administration, includes $309 million for flood control on the Mississippi River and its tributaries. .

The Bureau of Reclamation received $769.4 million, $87.3 million below the Administration s recommendation, and the Energy Department received $16.7 billion, $441.4 million below the Administration s request. Of the total, power-marketing administrations received $262 million. The final version also includes $608 million for water and related resources under the Bureau of Reclamation, $60 million for California Bay-Delta ecosystem restoration, and $42 million for the Central Valley project restoration fund.

Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary Appropriations Bill:

President Clinton vetoed the first FY 00 appropriations bill for Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary on October 25 because of steep budget cuts, blockage of payment of United Nations arrears, and failure to provide funding for 100,000 new police officers. The revised $38 billion measure, which was rolled into the $390 billion consolidated bill (H.R. 3194) signed by President Clinton on November 29, delinked UN funding from restrictions on family planning aid and increased funding for police officers, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Pacific salmon programs. Under the revised bill, programs to restore habitat for Pacific salmon and to implement last summer s US-Canada salmon treaty received $58 million. The bill also included $10 million each for northern and southern boundary river salmon programs, a down payment on a contribution of $140 million over four years specified under the US-Canada agreement. The $58 million will be divided among the states -- $18 million for Washington, $14 million for Alaska, $9 million each for Oregon and California, and $8 million for Native American tribes. The Administration had recommended $100 million for the states. Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) tried to push though an amendment that would have exempted from Endangered Species Act protection any incidental take of salmon in Alaskan waters, but the rider was rejected in the end. Instead, the Secretary of Commerce must undertake a series of actions before considering reductions in salmon catch and give the Pacific Salmon Commission a reasonable opportunity to implement the US-Canada treaty.

Interior-Related Agencies Appropriations Bill:

Largely due to disputes over mining and oil royalty riders and low funding levels for Administration priority programs, the FY 01 funding bill did not pass as a stand-alone bill but had to be rolled into the $390 billion consolidated funding package (H.R. 3194) signed by President Clinton on November 29. The $14.9 billion measure added to the consolidated package included an additional $220 million for land acquisition, grants to states for conservation and planning, urban parks, the cooperative endangered species fund, urban and community forestry, and the forest legacy program, as well as another $30 million for energy conservation programs.

In the final version, Senators agreed to shorten a moratorium on an Administration rule on oil royalty valuation and to restrict exemptions from an Interior Department ruling that would limit the amount of public land available for mining waste disposal. The Congressional moratorium delaying the Administration rule to increase the amount companies extracting oil from public lands must pay in royalties passed, but was shortened to March 15, 2000. Also, Members of Congress dropped language granting the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management broad discretion over whether to conduct wildlife population surveys before making management decisions.

Of the $1.24 billion for the Bureau of Land Management, $37 million is for wildlife habitat and fisheries, $19 million for threatened and endangered species, $34 million for resource protection and maintenance, and $16 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Of the $878 million for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, $190 is for fish wildlife, and ecological services. Of that $190 million, $109 is for endangered species, $72 million is for habitat conservation, and $86 is for fisheries. The National Park Service received $1.81 billion, including $54 million for national recreation and preservation and $121 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Conservation grants for planning assistance and the Urban Park and Recreation Fund did not receive any funding for FY 00. The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement received $196 million for the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund. The US Forest Service received $2.83 billion, including $109 million for wildlife and fisheries habitat management, $40 million for land management planning, and $80 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

ENDANGERED SPECIES

Senate Moves Critical Habitat Bill:

In June, the Senate Environment Committee approved a redrafted version of a bill co-sponsored by the late Senator John Chafee (R-RI) to amend the procedures for designating critical habitat for endangered and threatened species. As introduced, the legislation (S. 1100) would require federal agencies to shift the designation of critical habitat from the time of listing to the recovery planning process and mandate that recovery plans be completed within three years after a species is listed. The bill would eliminate all timelines for providing critical habitat to species that already have approved recovery plans. Currently, nine percent of all threatened and endangered species have critical habitat, while seventy-five percent already have recovery plans. In addition, any lawsuit challenging the designation of critical habitat would have to challenge the recovery plan upon which the designation was based.

The committee adopted by voice vote a substitute offered by Senator Chafee to double the time period for appointment of a recovery planning team to 120 days, integrate critical habitat designation with recovery planning, and direct the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service to develop a priority ranking system describing how the agencies plan to decide which species already on the ESA list should receive priority for critical habitat designation and recovery planning.

A number of environmental groups contend that S. 1100 could do more harm than good by causing further delay and adding to the costs of critical habitat designation. Among the criticisms are that S. 1100 would not close the loopholes that have contributed to the backlog of more than 1,000 species without designated habitats, would not require recovery goals or improve implementation, and would not require the Secretary of the Interior to protect survival habitat during the 3-year recovery planning process.

Only 10 percent of the 1,200 species listed under the Endangered Species Act currently have critical habitat designation.

Endangered Salmon:

The salmon issue remained hot throughout the year in Congress. President Clinton vetoed the FY 00 Commerce, Justice, and State funding bill in part because of a rider attached to the bill that would have exempted Alaskan salmon fishing operations from Endangered Species Act requirements (see above write-up under Appropriations).

In July, the House Resources Committee approved a controversial resolution expressing the sense of Congress in opposition of removing four federal dams on the Lower Snake River, which is one of the options under consideration by the Administration to restore decimated runs of Snake River salmon and steelhead. In response, more than 100 Members of the House from both parties wrote to President Clinton urging him to keep dam removal on the table.

The House also passed a bill authorizing $25 million a year for projects such as fish screens, fish passage devices, and other strategies to keep juvenile salmon, steelhead, bull trout, and other fish out of irrigation canals (H.R. 1444).

PARKS AND PUBLIC LANDS

Conservation Funding Bill Moves in House:

At the close of the session, the House Resources Committee voted 37-12 in favor of sweeping legislation to create an off-budget fund worth more than $3 billion annually from federal offshore oil and gas revenues for land conservation, wildlife and recreation programs, and impact aid to coastal states. As approved, the bill (H.R. 701 -- the Conservation and Reinvestment Act Fund) combines features from bills offered by Representatives Don Young (R-AK) and George Miller's (D-CA). The bill provides some $900 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, $150 million for conservation easements and species recovery, $1 billion for coastal impact assistance, $350 million for stateside wildlife conservation, and some $600 million for urban parks and recreation, historic preservation, and a variety of other programs. The compromise draft bill removes many earlier restrictions on federal land acquisition that had created stumbling blocks for legislators.

Despite of all its benefits, some environmental groups are uneasy about the bill. They worry that the bill includes unacceptable incentives for off-shore drilling, could serve to open sensitive new areas to oil drilling, does not have adequate restrictions on how the coastal impact money could be spent, and could allow the money to be spent on infrastructure and other environmentally damaging coastal development.

Although Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Frank Murkowski (R-AK), among others, introduced similar legislation (S. 25), they were unable to gain enough support in the Senate Energy Committee and decided against taking their bill to markup.

Alaskan Issues in Congress:

Congress grappled with several issues related to parks and public lands in Alaska this session. At the end of the session, the Senate passed a bill (S.501) to direct the National Park Service to allow subsistence fishing and gathering in Glacier Bay National Park, as well as commercial fishing in the outer waters of the park. The bill also requires the NPS to study fisheries throughout the park and consider the impact of commercial fishing on Glacier Bay and other national park resources. Earlier in the year, the Senate approved two bills to allow the Kake (S. 430) and the Huna Totem (S. 426) tribal corporations to each trade land tracts containing the watersheds that provide their villages with water to the US Forest Service in exchange for lands that could be logged or mined. The Senate will take up a controversial bill introduced by Senator Frank Murkowski (R-AK) to grant up to 500,000 acres of federal land to the University of Alaska.

On November 9, the House approved a bill (H.R. 3090) to allow the Elim Native Corporation to select up to 50,000 acres near Norton Bay, Alaska, to make up for land taken out of their control in a 1929 decision by President Herbert Hoover.

Parks and Public Lands Bills Awaiting President Clinton s Signature:

H.R. 2632 to designate the 9,200-acre Dugger Mountain Wilderness in the Talladega National Forest in Alabama.

H.R. 15 to designate the 185,00-acre Otay Wilderness on BLM land in California.

S. 416 to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to convey to the city of Sisters, Oregon, a certain parcel of land for a sewage treatment facility.

H.R. 2737 to provide 39 acres of federal land to Illinois for an interpretive center near the beginning of the 1804 Lewis and Clark expedition.

Parks and Public Lands Bills Passed by House:

H.R. 898 to designate the 18,000-acre Spanish Peaks Wilderness in the San Isabel National Forest in Colorado.

H.R. 468 to establish the St. Helena Island National Scenic Area in Lake Michigan.

H.R. 359 to allow private groups to maintain several small dams and weirs in California s Emigrant Wilderness.

Parks and Public Lands Bills Passed by Senate:

S. 776 to authorize the National Park Service to conduct a feasibility study for the preservation of the Loess Hills in western Iowa.

S. 1030 to ensure that land being traded by the BLM in Wyoming remains open for mining.

S. 1349 to authorize the National Park Service to study 12 areas for possible inclusion in the national park system.

S. 1288 to allow the US Forest Service to make grants to encourage forest restoration projects on national forest and other public lands in New Mexico.

RIVERS AND TRAILS

This year, Congress enacted one bill to add parts of three Massachusetts rivers the Sudbury, the Assabet, and the Concord to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System (H.R. 193). President Clinton signed the bill into law on April 9. Congress also approved H.R. 2140 to expand the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area in Georgia. The bill now awaits President Clinton s signature.

Two other Wild and Scenic Rivers bills also moved in Congress this year. The House passed H.R. 1615 to protect an additional 12 miles of the Lamprey River in New Hampshire as a recreational river in the Wild and Scenic Rivers System. The Senate also passed a bill (S. 1296) to protect 65.6 miles of the lower Delaware River between New Jersey and Pennsylvania as part of the Wild and Scenic Rivers System and a bill (S.1569) calling for a study of 40 miles of the Taunton River in Massachusetts for possible inclusion in the system.

WATER RESOURCES

WRDA Passed After Much Delay:

On August 17, President Clinton signed the Water Resources Development Act of 1999, which authorizes new projects and set policy for the US Army Corps of Engineers. WRDA, traditionally a biennial package, had been held up since 1998 largely due to conflicts over flood protection measures for Sacramento and a water supply project for Representative John Doolittle s (R-CA) nearby district. WRDA 1999, which will provide $4.3 billion in federal funds for $6.3 billion worth of projects, includes a new flood program and 45 other projects. Under Challenge 21, the new flood control program, the Corps will receive $200 million over five years for a watershed-based flood protection program focused on nonstructural and riverine ecosystem projects.

Specifically, WRDA 1999 authorizes 30 new projects, 15 projects pending favorable reports by the Corps by the end of the year, and more than 200 project modifications and other provisions. House-Senate conferees dropped House language to increase the federal subsidy for deep harbor dredging and maintained the revision of the federal/local cost share ration for beach renourishment to 50-50.

Environmental provisions included in the bill were:

Increased annual spending for Upper Mississippi River habitat restoration to $33 million; A new $30 million Missouri River restoration program and expansion of an existing program to buy 118,650 acres of floodplain land; A new 5-year, $200 million floodplain relocation and restoration program; Planning reforms to aid consideration of non-structural flood control projects; Removal of Embrey Dam on the Rappahannock River; The Rio Salado restoration project in Phoenix; No dam on the American River in California; New ecosystem restoration projects for the Indian River (FL), Little Wekiva River (FL), Grand Batture Island (MS), River Des Peres (MO), Reelfoot Lake (TN), Hudson River (NY), Blackstone River (RI), and others; and New watershed management projects in California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Nevada, Oregon, North Carolina, and other states.

Coastal Protection Bills:

The House and Senate moved on a number of coastal and marine protection bills this session. The House approved H.R. 1431, which would reauthorize the law that restricts federally subsidized development within the coastal barrier resources system. Another similar bill (H.R. 1243), which also passed the House, would reauthorize the system of marine sanctuaries aimed at preserving significant conservation, recreational, ecological, or aesthetic values in the marine environment. The House Resources Committee approved a bill to reauthorize the coastal zone management program H.R. 2669, the Coastal Community Conservation Act with two property rights amendments some Representatives believe will doom the bill in the full House. The amendments would bar the federal government from mandating that states take any action that would constitute a use of non-federal property for a public purpose without payment of just compensation as a condition of any grant. The second amendment would strike several provisions regarding nonpoint source pollution.

The House also passed the Beaches Environmental Awareness, Cleanup, and Health Act to require states to update water quality standards to include pathogens and other microorganisms that pose a health threat. The Senate passed a bill (S. 1119) to continue funding authorization for the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act.

LINKS TO PAST UPDATES:

QUESTIONS?

Contact Suzy McDowell, Conservation Outreach Coordinator, at smcdowell@amrivers.org or 202-347-7550x3040.

Legislative information taken from many sources including Thomas, Congressional Greensheets, Greenwire, and Roll Call.

Suzy McDowell
Outreach Coordinator
American Rivers
1025 Vermont Ave, NW, #720
Washington, DC 20005
202-347-7550 x3040
smcdowell@amrivers.org

This page created and maintained by Chehalis River Council
Send comments or questions to the: Chehalis River Council