[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 63 (Tuesday, May 4, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4663-S4664]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and 
were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-81. A joint resolution adopted by the Legislature of 
     the State of Washington; to the Committee on Environment and 
     Public Works.

                       Senate Joint Memorial 8013

       To the Honorable William J. Clinton, President of the 
     United States, and to the President of the Senate and the 
     Speaker of the House of Representatives, and to the Senate 
     and House of Representatives of the United States, in 
     Congress assembled:
       We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of 
     Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative 
     session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as 
     follows:
       Whereas, parts of Western Washington received the highest 
     amount of rainfall in state history between the months of 
     November and February, raining for ninety-one consecutive 
     days and producing over fifty-five inches of rain in King 
     County; and
       Whereas, parts of the Olympic Peninsula, i.e., Lilliwaup, 
     received over one hundred fourteen inches of rain in a four-
     month period; and
       Whereas, sixty-one homes have been damaged and twenty-six 
     homes are uninhabitable in the area known as Carlyon Beach in 
     Thurston County, with property losses estimated at over ten 
     million dollars; and
       Whereas, ground water flooding and landslides in Thurston 
     County have directly impacted at least seven hundred and 
     sixty-five residents, many of whom are elderly or have 
     special needs; and
       Whereas, a landslide in the Aldercrest neighborhood in 
     Cowlitz County has damaged one hundred and thirty-seven homes 
     to date, and at least fifty additional homes are threatened; 
     and
       Whereas, ground water problems will cost over two million 
     dollars to repair and currently no water or sewer systems are 
     in operation; and
       Whereas, shoreline bulkheads are failing, and public 
     facilities expenses are estimated at one million dollars, 
     excluding the cost of geotechnical assistance; and
       Whereas, Washington State Department of Transportation 
     estimates of highway damages reach eleven million two hundred 
     two thousand dollars, and ten million dollars of those 
     damages are in Mason County alone; and
       Whereas, local government estimates of damages to county 
     roads and city streets reach seven million three hundred 
     ninety-two thousand four hundred thirty-five dollars; and
       Whereas, Governor Locke's emergency proclamation now 
     includes six western counties and directs state government to 
     support emergency response activities as needed around the 
     state and authorizes the Washington Military Department and 
     its Emergency Management Division to coordinate state 
     agencies in the affected areas; and
       Whereas, county officials are continuing to assess damages 
     to determine sufficient damage for justification of federal 
     assistance; and
       Whereas, when damage from an event is so great it is beyond 
     the capability of local and state government to repair, the 
     Governor can ask the President to declare a disaster, thus 
     making a variety of federal disaster assistance programs 
     available to help restore communities to their predisaster 
     condition; and
       Whereas, the federal disaster assistance programs available 
     may include housing and relocation assistance, individual and 
     family grants, funding to restore public infrastructure and 
     roads, tax exemptions for the relocation of evacuated 
     citizens, funding for geotechnical studies to prevent future 
     damage, and hazard mitigation;
       Now, therefore, your Memorialists respectfully pray that if 
     the Governor requests federal assistance, the President and 
     the Federal Emergency Management Agency will respond 
     favorably to the request and authorize the needed maximum 
     available disaster recovery support to address the needs of 
     Washington's citizens devastated by the record rainfall.
       Be it resolved, That copies of this Memorial be immediately 
     transmitted to the Honorable William J. Clinton, President of 
     the United States, the President of the United States Senate, 
     the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member 
     of Congress from the State of Washington.
       POM-82. A joint resolution adopted by the Legislature of 
     the State of Washington; to the Committee on Appropriations.

                       House Joint Memorial 4008

       To the Honorable William J. Clinton, President of the 
     United States, and to the President of the Senate and the 
     Speaker of the House of Representatives, and to the Senate 
     and House of Representatives of the United States, in 
     Congress assembled:
       We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of 
     Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative 
     session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as 
     follows:
       Whereas, the introduction of aquatic nuisance species, such 
     as the zebra mussel, European green crab, and the mitten crab 
     have the potential to cause significant environmental and 
     economic damage to our state and nation; and
       Whereas, aquatic nuisance species can spread from any state 
     within our nation causing harm to all; and
       Whereas, the Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and 
     Control Act of 1990 authorizes the Aquatic Nuisance Species 
     Task Force to approve aquatic nuisance species management 
     plans that are submitted by state governors, and authorizes 
     the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to fund up to 
     seventy-five percent of the implementation cost of approved 
     plans; and
       Whereas, an important function of aquatic nuisance species 
     management plans is to encourage state and regional 
     jurisdictions to respond to aquatic nuisance species 
     problems; and
       Whereas, Congress has authorized four million dollars 
     annually to fund the implementation of state management plans 
     to minimize the environmental and economic damage caused by 
     aquatic nuisance species to our state and nation; and
       Whereas, in recent years only two hundred thousand dollars 
     has been appropriated annually to fund the implementation of 
     aquatic nuisance species management plans; and
       Whereas, the Washington State Aquatic Nuisance Species 
     Management Plan alone identified one million seven hundred 
     thousand dollars in additional funding needed to address 
     aquatic nuisance species problems; and
       Whereas, two hundred thousand dollars is inadequate to 
     allow fifty states, as well as interstate organizations, to 
     implement effective programs identified in aquatic nuisance 
     species management plans; and
       Whereas, the appropriation of the full four million dollars 
     authorized to fund aquatic nuisance species management plans 
     would encourage development of plans, and thereby serve to 
     reduce the destructive impact of aquatic nuisance species and 
     minimize the risk of their spread to other states;
       Now, therefore, your Memorialists respectfully pray that 
     the President and Congress should recognize the destructive 
     potential of aquatic nuisance species and act to minimize 
     this destruction by supporting appropriation of the four 
     million dollars authorized to fund state aquatic nuisance 
     species management plans in fiscal year 2000 and future 
     years.
       Be it resolved, That copies of this Memorial be immediately 
     transmitted to the Honorable William J. Clinton, President of 
     the United States, the President of the United States Senate, 
     the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member 
     of Congress from the State of Washington.
       POM-83. A joint resolution adopted by the Legislature of 
     the State of Montana; to the Committee on Energy and Natural 
     Resources.

                          Joint Resolution 17

       Whereas, the President of the United States, by Executive 
     Order, initiated the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem 
     Management Project (ICBEMP) to create a scientifically sound, 
     legally defensible, ecosystem management plan; and
       Whereas, the ICBEMP was to be a broad-scale, 12-month 
     project that would give general direction to public land 
     managers for ecosystem management but has become a top-down, 
     highly prescriptive set of management directives; and
       Whereas, the management direction provided by the ICBEMP 
     does not match the purpose and need statements made in the 
     environmental impact statement (EIS), which were to restore 
     and maintain a healthy forest, to provide sustainable and 
     predictable levels of products and services, and to support 
     economic and social needs of people, cultures, and 
     communities; and
       Whereas, the Columbia Basin ecosystem is a very diverse and 
     complex environment, and basinwide standards could be a 
     detriment to some or all forest-dependent and range-dependent 
     economies; and
       Whereas, experts maintain that the ICBEMP violates the 
     Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960, the National Forest 
     Management Act of 1976, the Forest and Rangeland Renewable 
     Resource Planning Act of 1974, the Regulatory Flexibility 
     Act, and the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness 
     Act of 1996; and
       Whereas, the ICBEMP was intended to be a scientifically 
     sound management plan but has become politically based on 
     selective science, which supports predetermined preservation 
     goals with a top-down, one-size-fits-all, highly prescriptive 
     set of management objectives and standards; and
       Whereas, the recent interim roadless policy proposed by 
     federal agencies indicates a strong desire to create de facto 
     wilderness areas and circumvent the authority of Congress (in 
     direct violation of the previously listed laws) and indicates 
     the political direction incorporated into the ICBEMP, which

[[Page S4664]]

     obfuscates the tireless, good faith efforts of local 
     representatives who participated in the ICBEMP process; and
       Whereas, public lands administered by the U.S. Forest 
     Service and U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are to be 
     managed for multiple use for the benefit of the citizens of 
     the United States, and road closures proposed within the 
     ICBEMP EIS preferred alternative will severely limit the 
     multiple use of millions of acres of public land; and
       Whereas, current road closures already dramatically limit 
     physical and financial abilities to control noxious weeds, 
     and the ICBEMP-proposed further closures pose a serious 
     threat of further and more serious weed encroachment into 
     Montana's forests and grasslands; and
       Whereas, the ICBEMP has become a political document, rather 
     than a resource manageable planning document; and
       Whereas, the ICBEMP contains too many economic assumptions 
     and too few economic projections based on accurate 
     information; and
       Whereas, implementation of the ICBEMP will directly affect 
     management of 16 BLM districts and 30 national forests, all 
     in the western United States; and
       Whereas, the ICBEMP coverage extends to 104 counties and 
     144 million acres of land (72 million scores of which are 
     private), and the ICBEMP implementation will directly and 
     indirectly affect the livelihoods of millions of citizens in 
     the planning area; and
       Whereas, a major component of the basic economies of about 
     two-thirds of the affected rural and natural resource-
     dependent counties would be directly and potentially severely 
     impacted by implementation of the ICBEMP; and
       Whereas, the citizens of Montana, Montana's local 
     government units, and Montana's communities have a direct 
     interest in public land management that produces payments in 
     lieu of taxes and (most importantly) forest receipts that 
     generate revenue to the federal treasury and significantly 
     contribute to funding public schools and roads; and
       Whereas, it is questionable whether Congress will fund the 
     ICBEMP implementation, and the impacts of inadequate 
     implementation funding would be significantly more disastrous 
     for natural resources than if implementation were fully 
     funded; and
       Whereas, the citizens of the United States and communities 
     throughout the western United States depend on the 
     stewardship, sustained yield, and even-flow production of 
     goods and services from multiple-use management of public 
     lands located in those states; and
       Whereas, there is increasing national and world demand for 
     renewable, recyclable goods and services, including 
     recreation, wildlife, fisheries, food, fiber, clean air, and 
     clean water; and
       Whereas, in Montana, the U.S. Forest Service has reduced 
     timber harvest by over 50% since 1950, even though wood is 
     the preferred raw material for home building, and transferred 
     global environmental consequences were never discussed or 
     considered when decisions were being made to reduce budgets; 
     and
       Whereas, domestic raw materials production is being 
     increasingly restricted in the United States, even in light 
     of rising domestic consumption and the United States' 
     position as a massive net importer of raw materials; and
       Whereas, decisions are being made on a daily basis and at 
     all levels of government to restrict raw materials 
     production, almost always on environmental grounds, yet 
     consumption is virtually never discussed; and
       Whereas, the ICBEMP draft documents fail to adequately and 
     truthfully define and disclose the economic, environmental, 
     and social conditions of Montana's communities and local 
     government units and the future effects on these entities of 
     implementation of the proposed ecosystem management 
     practices; and
       Whereas, the ICBEMP represents a top-down management 
     paradigm that reduces or eliminates effective local input to 
     natural resource management and environmental decisionmaking; 
     and
       Whereas, the ICBEMP has become a 6-year, over $40 million 
     project, with no end in sight: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate and the House of Representatives of 
     the State of Montana, That the federal government be strongly 
     urged to:
       (1) terminate the ICBEMP and issue no Record of Decision on 
     the ICBEMP;
       (2) forward the accurate ecosystem management data 
     developed through the ICBEMP to relevant BLM district 
     managers and U.S. Forest Service forest supervisors;
       (3) ensure that all public comments on the ICBEMP be 
     incorporated into the public record for the ICBEMP;
       (4) forward to district managers and supervisors the public 
     comments provided on the ICBEMP for the managers' and 
     supervisors' consideration related to updates to the land and 
     resource management plans required by federal law; and
       (5) coordinate plan revisions between adjoining management 
     units to provide consistency and connectivity and to consider 
     cumulative impacts in dealing with broad-scale issues that 
     affect multiple jurisdictions.
       BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that federal natural resource 
     planning and environmental management feature site-specific 
     management decisions made by local decisionmakers, local 
     citizenry, and parties directly and personally affected by 
     these decisions for our public lands.
       BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the federal government 
     acknowledge that the alternatives presented in the ICBEMP EIS 
     are inconsistent with but should be consistent with the 
     balanced ``Purpose of and Need for Action'' statements in the 
     same documents, which are:
       (1) ``restore and maintain long-term ecosystem health and 
     ecological integrity'' (i.e., restore and maintain a healthy 
     forest); and
       (2) ``support economic and/or social needs of people, 
     cultures, and communities, and provide sustainable and 
     predictable levels of products and services from our public 
     lands administered by the Forest Service or BLM . . .''; be 
     it further
       Resolved, That copies of this resolution be sent by the 
     Secretary of State to the President of the United States, the 
     Vice President of the United States, the Secretary of 
     Agriculture, the Secretary of the Interior, the presiding 
     officers of the Appropriations Committees of the U.S. Senate 
     and U.S. House, the Montana Congressional Delegation, the 
     Chief of the Forest Service, and the Director of the Bureau 
     of Land Management.

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