[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 4 (Tuesday, January 9, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S300]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. WYDEN:
  S. 232. A bill to make permanent the authorization for watershed 
restoration and enhancement agreements; to the Committee on Energy and 
Natural Resources.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, the legislation I introduce today 
reauthorizes a very successful cooperative watershed restoration 
program that I originally sponsored, and that was originally enacted 
for the Forest Service, in the Fiscal Year 1999 Interior Appropriations 
bill. The original legislation lasted through Fiscal Year 2001 after 
which it was reauthorized by the Appropriations Committees, at my 
request, through Fiscal Year 2005 and then again through Fiscal Year 
2011. My bill passed the Senate in the 109th Congress, but 
unfortunately did not pass in the House before the end of the Congress. 
Today, I reintroduce the bill hoping that it can speedily pass both 
chambers.
  The bill making what is commonly referred to as the Wyden amendment 
permanent authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to use appropriated 
Forest Service funds for watershed restoration and enhancement 
agreements that benefit the ecological health of National Forest System 
lands and watersheds. The Wyden amendment does not require additional 
funding, but allows the Forest Service to leverage scarce restoration 
dollars thereby allowing the federal dollars to stretch farther. During 
the eight years the program has existed, the Forest Service has 
leveraged three dollars for every Forest Service dollar spent on these 
agreements.
  The Wyden amendment has resulted in countless Forest Service 
cooperative agreements with neighboring state and local land owners to 
accomplish high priority restoration, protection and enhancement work 
on public and private watersheds. The projects authorized by these 
agreements have improved watershed health and fish habitat through the 
control of invasive species, culvert replacement, and other riparian 
zone improvement projects. In addition to ecological restoration, use 
of the Wyden amendment has improved cooperative relationships between 
the Forest Service, private land owners, state agencies and other 
federal agencies.
  I am hopeful that my colleagues on the Energy and Natural Resources 
Committee will again pass this bill out of the Committee and that 
thereafter this legislation can again pass the Senate expeditiously. I 
ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                 S. 232

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Watershed Restoration and 
     Enhancement Agreements Act of 2007''.

     SEC. 2. WATERSHED RESTORATION AND ENHANCEMENT AGREEMENTS.

       Section 323 of the Department of the Interior and Related 
     Agencies Appropriations Act, 1999 (16 U.S.C. 1011 note; 
     Public Law 105-277), is amended--
       (1) in subsection (a), by striking ``each of fiscal years 
     2006 through 2011'' and inserting ``fiscal year 2006 and each 
     fiscal year thereafter'';
       (2) by redesignating subsection (d) as subsection (e); and
       (3) by inserting after subsection (c) the following:
       ``(d) Applicable Law.--Chapter 63 of title 31, United 
     States Code, shall not apply to--
       ``(1) a watershed restoration and enhancement agreement 
     entered into under this section; or
       ``(2) an agreement entered into under the first section of 
     Public Law 94-148 (16 U.S.C. 565a-1).''.

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