[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 20]
[Senate]
[Pages 28950-28951]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                      INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS BILL

  Mr. THOMAS. Mr. President, one of the bills currently being 
considered, and is very important to the West particularly, is the 
Interior funding bill, the bill that funds the Interior Department, 
national parks, the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife 
Service, and others. It is relatively small compared to others. It is 
around $13 billion, $14 billion. I never thought I would suggest that 
is small, but compared to $360 billion it is relatively small.
  It has been tied up for a number of reasons. It has to do with the 
so-called land legacy the administration has been pushing recently, the 
idea of purchasing a great amount of land that has something to do with 
S. 25 that will bring in dollars from the Outer Continental Shelf 
royalties to be used in this area.
  The controversy is over the purchase of additional lands. There are 
some good things about S. 25--taking some more money from oil royalties 
and using them for parks. I am chairman of the Parks Subcommittee, and 
I met this morning with the new advisory committee that will be 
focusing on concessions. The parks are more and more in demand, more 
and more people are coming to them, and more and more people are taking 
advantage of the parks, one of the legacies of this country. We are 
having problems with the upkeep of the infrastructure that must be done 
to preserve historic and natural values. I support that.
  The park system, of course, has to be part of another section of 
parks, and that is local and State parks. National parks are not 
designed to provide all the services that people need. In communities, 
these are local responsibilities. Ball parks, for example, are put in 
by State and local parks. So they, too, need additional funding.
  One of the interesting areas, particularly those in the West where 
they do a great deal of wild game hunting, is a thing called teaming 
for wildlife. In our State, for example, the funds that go to the game 
and fish department come from the purchase of licenses for game 
animals. They spend a great deal of their time dealing with animals 
that

[[Page 28951]]

are not game animals that are threatened, endangered.
  The problem, however, is the administration insists on having $1 
billion a year to spend as they choose to buy land. This week, we had a 
hearing on the Forest Service setting aside 40 million acres by fiat, 
by administrative decree, to be used for de facto wilderness, if they 
choose, when under the law clearly to set aside land of that kind is 
the responsibility of the Congress.
  We are having increasing difficulty with that. I do not know whether 
it is driven by the President's desire to have a legacy, to be a latter 
century Theodore Roosevelt, or whether it is the environmental aspect 
of the Gore campaign. The fact is, the White House is not a monarchy; 
it does not decide to do these things individually. There has to be a 
cooperative arrangement with the Congress, whether it is purchasing or 
whether it is assigning different designations to land. That is the way 
it is, and it needs to be preserved in that fashion, in my judgment.
  We need to move forward with the Interior bill. It is one of about 
three bills that remains out of the 13, which is kind of surprising 
because it is one upon which most people here agree. There are a couple 
of things in it that are being used which I think are not realistic. 
One has to do with permits for grazing on Forest Service lands. 
Ranchers in the West--they have their base lands, of course--use 
grazing so we can have multiple use of public lands and forests, have 
grazing leases. In order to renew those leases, there needs to be a 
study. No one argues with the idea there needs to be a study. 
Unfortunately, they have not been able to keep up with the number of 
studies that need to be made, and so the study is not made before the 
permit expires and the Federal Government says: That's too bad, you're 
out of luck; take your cows and go home--when it has nothing to do with 
the permittee having not gotten the job done.
  What this amendment to the Interior bill says is the permit will be 
renewed for a period of time until this study can be made. If the study 
is made and there have to be changes, then there can be changes. That 
is held up somehow by the White House, and they are making a big thing 
and separating that out.
  The other is on oil royalties. We worked a long time trying to get 
fairness in oil royalties, taking out some of the charges and costs 
before the Government takes over, and percentage of royalties. We have 
not come to an agreement. This simply says, let's set it aside until 
the Congress and the executive department can come together. Again, not 
a willingness to work in a team fashion.
  I am hopeful we can get by those kinds of things this week. We are 
aiming to get out of here in 3 days, in fact. The fact is, it is 
possible.
  There are really only about three bills that need to be determined. 
Everyone knows what changes need to befocused on, what kind of 
concessions need to be made on both sides to make this happen. Usually, 
as we come down to the end, it is amazing how quickly some things can 
be done as opposed to when they just stretch out in the future.
  So our goals are to have no Government shutdown--certainly that is 
the Republican position for the rest of this year--we are settled on 
not having any new taxes to finance this year's new programs--we 
certainly have an adequate amount of money--and we are committed to 
paying down the publicly held debt and to protecting the Social 
Security surplus. These are the kinds of things I think everyone can 
agree upon if we can get to it this time.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Thomas). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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