[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 161 (Friday, November 7, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2286]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CONFERENCE REPORT H.R. 2691, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND RELATED 
                   AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                            HON. GREG WALDEN

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 30, 2003

  Mr. WALDEN of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, I regrettably come to the floor in 
opposition to the Interior conference report that my friend from North 
Carolina and the Chairman of the Subcommittee, Mr. Taylor, worked so 
hard in putting together. There are many things in this conference 
report for which I'm very grateful. I'm grateful to the Chairman for 
working with me to give the Bureau of Indian Affairs the authority to 
fund the first phase of the recommendations from the Chiloquin dam 
study, a critical effort in the Klamath Basin of southern Oregon to 
improve endangered sucker fish habitat and lighten the burden on 
agriculture. I also want to extend my sincere appreciation to the 
Chairman for funding PILT at $227,500,000--one of its highest levels 
ever. While it is not the fully authorized level of $360 million that I 
have been a staunch advocate for, it's much better than it has been in 
the past and the good Chairman and his top-notch staff are to thank for 
this. Finally, I want to commend the Chairman for his work in getting 
$400 million included in the conference report to replenish the 
exhausted fire suppression accounts of the BLM and Forest Service, and 
I commend him for including almost $2.5 billion to implement the 
National fire plan next year. These are significant accomplishments and 
I have enthusiastically supported them.
  However, even with the inclusion of all these excellent provisions, I 
reluctantly must vote against the conference report because of the 
language included that undermines the efforts of my friend from 
California, the Chairman of the Resources Committee, to find a 
legislative solution to the complicated problem of tribal trust 
accounting. The language added to the conference report would interrupt 
the Department of the Interior's conduct of its historical accounting 
of individual Indian trust fund accounts, which is mandated by federal 
court order in Cobell v. Norton. The language would suspend any such 
accounting until either December 31, 2004 or until Congress revised the 
American Indian Trust Management Reform Act to limit this forensic 
accounting activity. The added language not only interferes with a 
court-required accounting for hundreds of thousands of Native 
Americans, but also seeks to force a potentially hasty decision on an 
exceptionally complex issue and overlooks an agreement reached between 
Chairman Pombo and Chairman Taylor during House floor consideration of 
this bill in July. That agreement stated that settlement of the Cobell 
matter would be left to Chairman Pombo's Resources Committee to 
resolve, the proper authorizing committee venue. Unfortunately, the 
conference report language does not comport with that agreement, and so 
I will reluctantly vote against this bill in its current form. I am 
hopeful that this provision can successfully be resolved in the correct 
legislative forum, and that the many other outstanding provisions of 
the Interior Appropriations bill developed under the fine leadership of 
Chairman Taylor remain intact.

                          ____________________