[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 17 (Monday, February 4, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S599-S600]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        SPENDING IDENTIFICATION

  Mr. BINGAMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
following letter and attachment be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

         U.S. Senate, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
                                 Washington, DC, February 4, 2008.
     Hon. Harry Reid,
     Majority Leader, U.S. Senate,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. Leader: S. 2483, the National Forests, Parks, 
     Public Land, and Reclamation Projects Authorization Act of 
     2007, is a collection of 56 separate legislative measures 
     under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Energy and Natural 
     Resources. Forty-five consist of the text of separate bills 
     passed by the House of Representatives, nine are drawn from 
     separate subtitles of another House-passed bill, and one is a 
     House-passed concurrent resolution. Only one provision, 
     section 482, contains new matter that has not passed the 
     House of Representatives. A complete list of the House bills 
     (and their Senate companion measures, where they exist) was 
     printed in the Congressional Record on December 13, 2007, at 
     pages S15474-S15475.
       I assembled the 56 measures into a single bill in order to 
     facilitate their consideration by the Senate. Although S. 
     2483 was placed on the Calendar without referral to the 
     Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, most of the House 
     bills that make up S. 2483 have been reported, or ordered 
     reported, by the Committee.
       Rule XLIV of the Standing Rules of the Senate provides 
     that, before proceeding to the consideration of a bill, the 
     chairman of the committee of jurisdiction must certify that 
     each congressionally designated spending item in the bill and 
     the name of the Senator requesting it has been identified and 
     posted on a publicly accessible website. The term 
     ``congressionally designated spending item'' is broadly 
     defined, in pertinent part, to include ``a provision . . . 
     included primarily at the request of a Senator . . . 
     authorizing . . . a specific amount of discretionary budget 
     authority . . . for . . . expenditure with or to an entity, 
     or targeted to a specific State, locality or Congressional 
     district, other than through a statutory or administrative 
     formula-driven or competitive award process.''
       Ten of the House-passed bills incorporated into S. 2483 
     contain provisions authorizing the appropriation of specific 
     amounts targeted to specific entities or localities. These 
     authorizations are included in S. 2483 because they are part 
     of the House-passed text. No Senator submitted a request to 
     me to include them.
       In the interest of furthering the transparency and 
     accountability of the legislative process, however, I have 
     posted a list of the specific authorizations in S. 2483 on 
     the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources' website. The 
     list includes the name of the principal sponsor of the Senate 
     companion measure that corresponds to the House-passed bill. 
     A copy of the list is attached for your convenience.
       In addition, I have asked the principal sponsor of the 
     Senate companion measure of each House bill contained in S. 
     2483 to certify that neither the Senator nor the Senator's 
     immediate family has a pecuniary interest in the item, and 
     have posted the certifications on the Committee's website. 
     All certifications received by the Committee pursuant to 
     paragraph 6 of Rule XLIV are posted on the Committee's 
     website as soon as practicable after they are received in 
     accordance with paragraph 6(b).
       Thus, in accordance with Rule XLIV of the Standing Rules of 
     the Senate, I hereby certify that each congressionally 
     directed spending item in S. 2483 has been identified through 
     a list and that the list was posted on the Committee's 
     publicly accessible website at approximately 2:30 p.m. on 
     February 4, 2008.
           Sincerely,
                                                    Jeff Bingaman,
     Chairman.
                                  ____


  COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED 
SPENDING ITEM CERTIFICATION PURSUANT TO RULE XLIV OF THE STANDING RULES 
                             OF THE SENATE

S. 2483--The National Forests, Parks, Public Land, and Reclamation Act 
                                of 2007

       Provisions in S. 2483 authorizing appropriations in a 
     specific amount for expenditure with or to an entity or 
     targeted to a specific State, locality, or congressional 
     district, other than through a statutory or administrative 
     formula-driven or competitive award process:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                                  Senate bill
              Section                        Program or entity                  State              sponsor
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 333(e)..........................  American Latino Museum Commission..  DC.................  Salazar.
 334(j)..........................  Hudson-Fulton and Champlain          NY & VT............  Clinton.
                                    Commissions.
 342(f)..........................  Lewis & Clark Visitor Center.......  NE.................  Hagel.
 409.............................  Hallowed Ground National Heritage    VA.................  Warner.
                                    Area.
 430.............................  Niagara Falls National Heritage      NY.................  Schumer.
                                    Area.
 449.............................  Abraham Lincoln National Heritage    IL.................  Durbin.
                                    Area.

[[Page S600]]

 
 461.............................  Multiple National Heritage Areas...  OH, PA, MA, SC.....  Voinovich.
                                                                        WV TN, GA, IA, & NY  none.
 504(d)..........................  Watkins Dam........................  UT.................  Hatch.
 505.............................  New Mexico water planning            NM.................  Domenici.
                                    assistance.
 509.............................  Multiple Oregon water projects.....  OR.................  Smith/Wyden.
 511.............................  Eastern Municipal Water District...  CA.................  Feinstein.
 512.............................  Inland Empire & Cucamonga water      CA.................  Feinstein.
                                    projects.
 513.............................  Bay Area water recycling program...  CA.................  Feinstein.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                                                                             

                          ____________________