[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 73 (Tuesday, June 13, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H4314-H4320]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 
                                  2001

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 524 and rule 
XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House 
on the State of the Union for the consideration of the bill, H.R. 4578.

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                     In the Committee of the Whole

  Accordingly, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the 
Whole House on the State of the Union for the consideration of the bill 
(H.R. 4578) making appropriations for the Department of the Interior 
and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2001, and 
for other purposes, with Mr. LaTourette in the chair.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered as having 
been read the first time.
  Under the rule, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula) and the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks) each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula).
  Mr. REGULA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  (Mr. REGULA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. REGULA. Mr. Chairman, tonight I bring before the House the fiscal 
year 2001 interior appropriations bill. Before I begin, however, I 
would like to take the opportunity to reflect upon the previous, 
including this year, 6 years. Under the rules of the House, this year 
is my last year as chairman of the House Subcommittee on Interior of 
the Committee on Appropriations. I have served on this subcommittee for 
the past 26 years, first as a junior member, later as its ranking 
member and most recently as chairman.
  This committee has been a labor of satisfaction for me. I believe it 
is a vitally important committee in the Congress; and even though I 
will not serve as its chairman next year, I intend to remain very 
involved in it and hope to continue the many positive initiatives begun 
over these years.
  Upon reflection, three themes come to mind. First, I have tried to 
improve management within the agencies funded in the bill. Too often, 
government managers do not focus on the difficult issues of responsible 
and accountable actions and decisions. Over my tenure as chairman, I 
have held 25 oversight hearings with the underlying focus on improving 
management. I believe these efforts are producing results. We have 
brought management reform to the national parks services construction 
program ensuring that the American taxpayer will no longer be asked to 
foot the bill for a $784,000 outhouse in a national park. We have 
eliminated duplication in our Federal agencies with the abolishment of 
the Bureau of Mines which had jurisdiction over programs already being 
conducted by OSHA, the Department of Labor and the Department of 
Energy.
  Next, over my years of service, I have grown increasingly concerned 
about our lack of attention to maintaining our federally owned lands 
and the facilities on them. Through an oversight hearing conducted by 
our subcommittee, I learned that I was correct in my concern. The four 
land management agencies, the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife 
Service, the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, provided 
estimates that the maintenance backlog totals nearly $13 billion. To 
address this unacceptable situation, our committee initiated a 
recreation fee demonstration program in fiscal year 1995.
  Under the program, the land management agencies are permitted to 
collect a nominal fee at up to 100 sites. The fee stays at the site 
where it is collected and is used at that site for maintenance or other 
projects to enhance the visitors' experience. The fees are expected to 
generate $500 million over the period of this demonstration.
  The fee program is working well as facilities and trails are now 
being maintained better today than we would have been able to do so 
through appropriations alone. Further, we have evidence that vandalism 
is down in sites where people are paying fees as they feel they have a 
stake in the park or forest they are visiting.
  Let me emphasize, however, that recreation fees are not carrying the 
sole responsibility for maintenance of our public lands. Under my 
chairmanship, our committee has set maintenance funding as a priority 
and over these past 6 years we have provided several hundred million 
dollars in maintenance funding and, most importantly, we have required 
the land management agencies to assess their maintenance requirements, 
establish common criteria for what deferred maintenance is and develop 
5-year master plans to address the situation. Our attention to the 
maintenance issue is making a difference.
  Finally, each year I have brought the bill before this body for 
consideration, we have been faced with the difficult challenge of 
meeting the countless needs of the 35 agencies within the constraints 
of a tight budget environment. We have tried to balance these needs 
with the simple test: Must do items, need to do items, and nice to do 
items.
  We have always done the must do. We have done many of the need to do 
and some of the nice to do. Using this test as our guide, I believe our 
committee has done our best over these years to use the taxpayers' 
money wisely while meeting our Federal responsibilities.
  I want to express particularly my appreciation to the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. Dicks), who has served as the ranking member of the 
subcommittee. He has been a real partner, as we have worked together on 
a number of policy priorities of the committee, including the backlog 
maintenance issue.
  Next I would like to compliment the able staff members who have 
assisted during my tenure as chairman. I particularly express my 
appreciation to our clerk, Debbie Weatherly, as well as other 
subcommittee staff members, Loretta Beaumont, Joe Kaplan and Chris 
Topik. On the minority side, I want to thank Leslie Turner on the staff 
of the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks), and welcome Mike 
Stephens, a long-time committee veteran who returned to the Committee 
on Appropriations this year following the retirement of Del Davis.
  I appreciate the professionalism of each of these people and the many 
dedicated hours they have provided this House over the years.
  Mr. Chairman, today I present before the House the fiscal year 2001 
interior appropriation bill. This year, the subcommittee received more 
than 550 letters from Members of the House requesting funding for more 
than 3,400 individual items totaling $152 billion, all for interior and 
related agency programs.
  For fiscal year 2001, we received an allocation of $14.6 billion, 
which is $300 million below the fiscal year 2000 enacted bill. As we 
can see, we have had to make some tough choices, and the bill reflects 
this challenge.
  Again, I want to say the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks) has 
been a real teammate in addressing these. I know that he has not agreed 
with the allocation. In some respects, I have not myself but we have 
made the best of what we had to work with. I think that took a real 
team effort.
  I think the fact that we have had the requests of over $152 billion 
demonstrates the popularity of this bill and the important projects 
that are out there if we had the means to provide the funding.
  Within the constraints of our allocation, we were unable to fund the 
President's lands legacy initiative.

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  However, we have included $164 million in Federal acquisition funding 
and

[[Page H4315]]

an additional $20 million for state-side land acquisition.
  Mr. Chairman, as we become an increasingly stressed urban population, 
the respite that our Federal lands offer our society becomes even more 
important. Recreation on these lands continue to grow.
  Last year, the four land management agencies received more than 1.2 
billion visitors. Funding to maintain the pristine resources of these 
lands, from national treasures like Yosemite within our national park 
system, to the 93 million acres of national wildlife refuges, to the 
hundreds of millions of acres of BLM lands and national forests, is 
clearly a priority in the bill.
  We have provided a $62 million increase in National Park Service 
Operations, a $30 million increase for the Bureau of Land Management, a 
$22 million increase for national wildlife refuges, and a $60 million 
increase for the National Forest System. I emphasize that each of these 
land agencies receive increases to ensure that the public has a quality 
experience in the use of our lands.
  This became a number one priority given our limited resources to make 
sure that the places where the public interfaced with the public land, 
that there would be adequate money for them to meet their fixed costs, 
and they could maintain the staff and the quality experience that the 
public is entitled to.
  The Department of Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act is 
an environmental bill, and I am pleased with the work that we are doing 
in areas such as abandoned mine restoration, which we have increased to 
$198 million this year. Through the work of premier scientists at the 
U.S. Geological Survey, we are gaining greater understanding of the 
earth's processes and national resources. These scientists conduct 
important work in the area of hazards such as earthquakes and volcanic 
eruptions, water quality and quantity and coastal erosion.
  The newest members of the USGS scientific team, the Biological 
Resources Division, are working with the land management agencies to 
provide the important scientific information needed to effectively 
manage our Nation's biological resources.
  I want to say we have emphasized science in our bill. We recognize 
that wise management requires good science. Some Members may be aware 
of the three funding limitations of the bill, and I understand there 
will be amendments offered to remove them. I remind my colleagues that 
these funding limitations are for 1 year only, as they are in this 
annual appropriations bill. They are not permanent law. They simply 
give the Congress more time to reflect on the issues of some of the 
activities taken by the executive branch. I am a great respecter of the 
separation of powers. Our responsibility is to make policy. The 
responsibility of the President and his team is to execute policy. 
Sometimes I think those two get confused. Of course, then we have the 
courts that interpret the impact of these laws.
  Through the Interior bill, we have the obligation of the Federal 
Government to meet the needs of the American Indian and native Alaska 
populations in the vital areas of health care and education. While I 
would like to have been able to do more, we have increased funding for 
the Indian health service by $30 million and for education programs 
through the Bureau of Indian Affairs by $6 million.
  I would mention here that the gentleman from Washington (Mr. 
Nethercutt), a member of our committee, has focused on juvenile 
diabetes and diabetes generally, which is a serious problem for the 
Native American population. Here again, we have tried to address that, 
thanks to his leadership.
  Over these past 6 years, I have worked with Members on both sides of 
the aisle to achieve balances on Forest Service issues where 
conflicting goals have often clashed. Under my chairmanship and with 
the support of the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks), the ranking 
minority member, we have eliminated the $50 million purchaser road 
credit. That has always been a sore spot, and I am pleased that the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks) provided the leadership to make 
this problem get solved.
  We have reduced the annual allowable cut of timber on National 
Forests to 3.5 billion board feet. In fiscal year 1990, this level 
reached a low of 11.1 billion board feet, in other words, almost a 70 
percent reduction. I think it reflects the fact that, on a bipartisan 
basis we have been sensitive to the environmental impact in maintaining 
our forests and recognizing that the forests are great carbon 
sequestering facilities.
  Finally, we are working to return accountability and sound management 
to the Forest Service. For years, the GAO and the Inspector General, 
the Department of Agriculture have been producing critical reports on 
the Forest Service. We all heard about those or read about them. This 
year the subcommittee requested assistance from the National Academy of 
Public Administration to make recommendations for improving this 
agency, and we are putting into place changes to bring true 
accountability to this agency.
  I might add here that the National Academy of Public Administration 
does excellent work and their service to us, to our committee has been 
highly commendable.
  Next, I call my colleagues' attention to energy research programs. 
The bill provides $1.1 billion for these programs. It achieves a 
delicate balance to meet our Nation's energy needs as we try to utilize 
our energy in the most efficient and lowest polluting ways possible 
and, at this point in time, at the least cost possible.
  Research on our domestic, natural, energy resources, including coal, 
natural gas, and oil remain paramount to the continuation of our strong 
economy. I remind my colleagues that this research is not the cost of 
research and development of renewable energy such as solar and wind 
power or biomass. Funding for these energy sources are contained in the 
Energy and Water Appropriations bill.
  Some of our Nation's most treasured national cultural institutions 
are funded in the Interior bill. I call to my colleagues' attention the 
fine work of the National Gallery of Art, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial 
Museum, the Kennedy Center, and the Smithsonian Institute. Each of 
these organizations provides a wonderful service to the American 
people, not just to those who visit or live in the Nation's capital; 
but now through the Internet and the further outreach programs, these 
entities are able to play a role in communities and classrooms across 
the country. I encourage each American to take advantage of the 
opportunities they offer.
  I want to say these agencies are doing a great job of taking their 
resources to the Nation through the Internet, through the outreach. I 
think that is highly commendable.
  I conclude my remarks by thanking my colleagues on the subcommittee. 
I have greatly enjoyed working with each of the Members. It is a great 
subcommittee, and particularly including my dear friend Sid Yates who 
retired from this House at the end of the 105th Congress following a 
long and distinguished career in this body and contributed much to our 
Nation's resources, our interior resources. What a marvelous legacy he 
left as a result of his chairmanship.
  Over these years, the Members on both sides of the aisle worked 
together in a bipartisan way to craft balanced bills that meet our 
responsibilities to the American people in managing our Federal lands, 
in conducting energy research, and in operating our cultural agencies. 
I appreciate their support and look forward to continuing to work with 
them in the future.
  Mr. Chairman, I insert for the Record a table detailing the various 
accounts in this bill, as follows:

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  Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  (Mr. DICKS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I want to compliment the chairman on his 
remarks here tonight. I have always been against term limits, and I 
know that others here have learned the hard lessons. But I think that 
the 6-year limitation on chairmanships is one that sometimes it will be 
good and sometimes it will be bad. I happen to think in this case this 
is a very bad one, because I think the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula) 
has been a great chairman.
  The gentleman from Ohio mentioned Sid Yates. I have served on this 
subcommittee, this is my 24th year; and Sid Yates was a great role 
model, a great chairman. The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula) has been 
an outstanding chairman as well. Both of these men have done a great 
service to our country over the last 30 years.
  I want to congratulate the gentleman from Ohio tonight on his 6 years 
as our chairman. As he said, he has not been dealt the best hand when 
it came to allocations. I can remember the coach out at the Sea Hawks, 
Chuck Knox, who used to say one has got to play the hand that one is 
dealt. We have not been dealt a very nice hand, but we have tried our 
best with the money that we have to do the best job possible.
  I want to compliment the chairman also for his efforts throughout his 
career, one, to bring better administration to the agencies over which 
we have jurisdiction and using the public administration people, using 
the National Academy of Science, using whatever oversight group we 
could find, the GAO, and our own investigative team, to look at 
agencies and try to help them do a better job. I think it was always 
done in a constructive way, trying to help them improve their 
management and to save money and so that they could do a better job 
with the task that they have. I think that is a legacy that will live 
on.
  Number two, the chairman has been dogged and I think correct in his 
efforts to make certain that our existing parks, our existing Forest 
Service facilities, our BLM facilities all over this country which 
provide so much recreation to the American people are maintained 
properly.
  Sometimes in this institution everybody wants to add new facilities 
or add new parks and new areas. Somebody has to remember that one has 
got to take care of the ones we have already got. The gentleman from 
Ohio (Chairman Regula) has done a remarkable job, and it is also a 
legacy issue in terms of his commitment to that and educating our 
committee and the members of the subcommittee about how important that 
is.
  Then of course an initiative that he took on his own with my support 
and the committee's support was to have this fee-demonstration project. 
This is another legacy issue which is, I think, being supported all 
over this country, as people see that when they go to their park a 
significant amount of the money, 80 percent, will stay there, so that 
it will help take care of the high-priority maintenance problems, 
trails, other things that are essential to that particular park.
  I think this has been kind of a pay-as-you-go formula. Frankly, I do 
not think the park supervisor, the Forest Service, the BLM would ever 
get caught up unless we try to do something innovative like this. I 
think that is another important issue.
  We will have more time when we get into the bill to get into a deeper 
discussion of the issues. But tonight we should be congratulating the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula) for his outstanding service to the 
House and to this committee, and I am glad to hear him say he is going 
to stay on the committee. I look forward to working with him. He has an 
outstanding staff led by Debbie Weatherly and all the other members of 
the staff. I want to thank Mike Stevens and Leslie Turner on our side. 
They all work together so well, so professionally. It makes one very 
proud as a Member of this institution.
  I am also very proud to be on the Committee on Appropriations because 
I believe this committee always works together in a bipartisan way. All 
the committees that I have ever been on, all the subcommittees, have 
always functioned that way. I think it is something we all should try 
to make a role model out of, because it is the way this institution 
should work when we get something done of importance. When we can work 
together and deal with these issues, we can get a lot more done for the 
American people.
  So I say to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula), I am going to miss 
him in his role as chairman; but I am glad he is going to still be on 
the committee. We will work on a lot of good things and keep going out 
and look at these facilities. Another thing that the gentleman from 
Ohio did is get us back out on the road to see these parks and to see 
these facilities, see where the problems are, and then come back and 
start fixing them. That is the way one should do it.
  Unfortunately, our committee did not do that as much as we should 
have in years past, but the gentleman from Ohio reinstated that. I 
think it is a tradition we should maintain in the future.
  So tomorrow we will discuss the bill. Tonight we thank the gentleman 
from Ohio (Chairman Regula) for his great service.
  Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. REGULA. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks), my 
ranking member, for those kind comments. It really has been a great 
team. I failed to mention that also Lori Rowley is my staff person who 
works on this and does a marvelous job on my behalf as the 
appropriations staffer for Subcommittee on Interior. We appreciate her 
work a great deal.
  Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman 
from Washington (Mr. Nethercutt), an extremely valuable member of our 
subcommittee.

                              {time}  2215

  Mr. NETHERCUTT. Mr. Chairman, I rise to echo the comments of my 
colleague from Washington State, not just on the term limits issue but 
most specifically his warm phrase for our chairman, the gentleman from 
Ohio (Mr. Regula). I have been on this subcommittee all the time that I 
have served in this body the last 5\1/2\ years. The gentleman from Ohio 
was my chairman, my first chairman as the Subcommittee on Interior 
assignment was made, one that I have thoroughly enjoyed, not just 
because of working with colleagues on my own side of the aisle but 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle as well.
  I think it is significant that not only the predecessor chairman of 
the subcommittee, Mr. Yates, but the current ranking member, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks), have such high praise for the 
work and the commitment of the gentleman from Ohio to the good work of 
the Subcommittee on Interior. I speak not only for the gentleman from 
Ohio's expertise in learning and understanding and knowing and having 
good judgment about the intricacies of this bill and the specifics of 
it because it is so vitally important to the soul of this Nation. It 
not only covers the arts and the humanities but the parks and the 
recreation efforts and really the maintenance of the national treasures 
that are under the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Interior, but it 
really speaks, I think, very highly that these men and these people who 
serve on this subcommittee on opposite political sides of the aisle but 
on the same human side having respect and admiration for our chairman.
  It is sort of a bittersweet time that the chairman will not be the 
chairman after this year, but I again join my colleagues in 
appreciating the legacy he has left. Not only has he been a gentleman 
to me, but he has been a gentleman to every single member of the 
subcommittee and every single Member of this House. He is also a 
gentleman to his staff. This committee staff is here.
  You can tell the value of a Member in some measure by the value that 
the staff places upon that Member. This staff loves this Member. They 
respect him as we all do, and they love him dearly. So they have 
committed themselves not only to the cause of good

[[Page H4320]]

government regardless of party but the cause of the good leadership of 
the gentleman from Ohio. He has been one who has treated every Member 
with respect, not arrogance or not dismissal but respect. I think that 
is the sign of a good leader. It is the sign of a good Member of this 
body. It is the real charge and responsibility of any chairman 
regardless of party. You do not see partisan politics playing a part 
most of the time, 99 percent of the time, with this chairman. He is 
trying to be evenhanded with respect to all Members.
  I listened to the gentleman from Colorado tonight speak on the rule 
and state that he was grateful for the inclusion of some provisions in 
this bill after working with this chairman and our subcommittee but was 
opposed to the bill. A narrower-minded chairman might have said, 
``Well, if you're not going to support my bill, your provisions are not 
going in this bill.'' But this is the modern era of fairness in 
politics, I hope, and I expect, and I believe, especially with the 
gentleman from Ohio at the helm.
  I join not only the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks) but 
virtually every single Member of this body in paying tribute to the 
gentleman from Ohio, thanking him profusely for all the good work that 
he has done and his commitment to the interior jurisdiction of this 
government, this Congress and trying his best and our best to have the 
best bill that can ever come out of this House as it relates to the 
national treasures of our public lands.
  Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. REGULA. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Washington for 
those kind remarks, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  The CHAIRMAN. All time for general debate has expired.
  Mr. REGULA. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.
  The motion was agreed to.
  Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. 
Terry) having assumed the chair, Mr. LaTourette, Chairman of the 
Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, reported that 
that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4578) 
making appropriations for the Department of the Interior and related 
agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2001, and for other 
purposes, had come to no resolution thereon.

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