[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 41 (Tuesday, March 11, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S1869]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CONSOLIDATED RESOURCES ACT OF 2008

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

                                                   March 11, 2008.
     Hon. Harry Reid,
     Majority Leader, U.S. Senate,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. Leader: S. 2739, the Consolidated Natural 
     Resources Act of 2008, which I introduced yesterday, is a 
     collection of 62 separate legislative measures under the 
     jurisdiction of the Committee on Energy and Natural 
     Resources. The purpose of the bill is to facilitate 
     consideration in the Senate of the large and growing number 
     of measures relating to protection of natural resources and 
     preservation of our historic heritage that have been passed 
     by the House of Representatives and approved by the Committee 
     on Energy and Natural Resources. Forty-three of the measures 
     in S. 2739 consist of the text of separate bills passed by 
     the House of Representatives, twelve are drawn from separate 
     titles, subtitles, or sections of two other House-passed 
     bills, and two are House-passed concurrent resolutions. Only 
     one provision, section 482, contains new matter that has not 
     passed the House of Representatives.
       While S. 2739 incorporates a number of provisions of S. 
     2483, the National Forests, Parks, Public Land, and 
     Reclamation Projects Authorization Act of 2007, which I 
     introduced 3 months ago, on December 14, 2007, there are a 
     number of differences between the bills that are dictated by 
     the amount of time that has elapsed since last December and 
     by action that has since taken place in the House of 
     Representatives. Two of the sections included in S. 2483 last 
     December were subsequently enacted into law as part of the 
     Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008, Public Law 110-161, 
     and, accordingly, have been left out of S. 2739. Eight new 
     provisions, drawn from eight separate House bills or 
     resolutions, have been added. Two of the effective dates in 
     title VIII of S. 2483 have been extended in S. 2739 in light 
     of the passage of time since S. 2483 was introduced. In 
     addition, minor modifications were made in a few other 
     provisions.
       Although S. 2739 has not been referred to the Committee on 
     Energy and Natural Resources, all of the House bills that 
     make up S. 2739 or their Senate companions have either 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.''
       Fifteen of the House-passed measures incorporated into S. 
     2739 contain provisions authorizing the appropriation of 
     specific amounts targeted to specific entities or localities. 
     These authorizations are included in S. 2739 because they are 
     part of the text of the House-passed bills. 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. 2739 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.
       I previously 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 I have received on the Committee's 
     website. All certifications received in relation to S. 2483 
     remain on the Committee's website, where they are available 
     for public inspection in accordance with paragraph 6 of Rule 
     XLIV. I have not received any requests for new 
     congressionally directed spending items to be included in S. 
     2739.
       Thus, in accordance with Rule XLIV of the Standing Rules of 
     the Senate, I hereby certify that each congressionally 
     directed spending item in S. 2739 has been identified through 
     a list and that the list was posted on the Committee's 
     publicly accessible website at approximately 3:00 p.m. on 
     March 11, 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. 2739--THE CONSOLIDATED NATURAL RESOURCES ACT OF 2008

       Provisions in S. 2739 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:

 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                           Principal sponsor of
              Section                     Program or entity                State                Senate bill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
314(c).............................  Acadia National Park.......  ME....................  Collins
333(e).............................  American Latino Museum       DC....................  Salazar
                                      Commission.
334(j).............................  Hudson-Fulton and Champlain  NY & VT...............  Clinton
                                      Commissions.
342(f).............................  Lewis & Clark Visitor        NE....................  Hagel
                                      Center.
409................................  Hallowed Ground National     VA....................  Warner
                                      Heritage Area.
430................................  Niagara Falls National       NY....................  Schumer
                                      Heritage Area.
449................................  Abraham Lincoln National     IL....................  Durbin
                                      Heritage Area.
461................................  Multiple National Heritage   OH, PA, MA, SC........  Voinovich
                                      Areas.
  .................................    .........................  WV, TN, GA, IA, & NY..  none
504(d).............................  Watkins Dam................  UT....................  Hatch
505................................  New Mexico water planning    NM....................  Domenici
                                      assistance.
509................................  Multiple Oregon water        OR....................  Smith/Wyden
                                      projects.
511................................  Eastern Municipal Water      CA....................  Feinstein
                                      District.
512................................  Bay Area water recycling     CA....................  Feinstein
                                      program.
515(b)(6)..........................  Platte River...............  NB, WY, CO............  Nelson (of NB)
516(c).............................  Central Oklahoma Master      OK....................  Inhofe
                                      Conservancy District.
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