[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 21]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 31266]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                          FEDERAL WILDLIFE AID

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB SCHAFFER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 18, 1999

  Mr. SCHAFFER. Mr. Speaker, this legislative session, the House 
Resources Committee, of which I am a member, held three lengthy 
hearings on how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has managed the 
Pittman-Robertson (PR) and Dingell-Johnson (DJ) funds. These funds are 
paid for through excise taxes collected on all fishing and hunting 
supplies and outdoor gear. Coloradans pay a disproportionate share of 
these taxes because of the number of sportsmen and women who live here. 
In addition, businesses in Colorado collect a large share of the taxes 
for the federal government because visitors come from all over and 
spend money to hunt and fish in our great state.
  The Fish and Wildlife Service was instructed to distribute the PR-DJ 
money through the Federal Aid Program to the states to use for 
conservation and wildlife management. Coloradans pay these taxes 
without complaint because they are playing a part in improving wildlife 
and conservation in our state. This fund has helped target money to 
recover species in Colorado that would have otherwise been endangered 
without PR-DJ funds. The problem comes when Fish and Wildlife was 
allowed to use up to 6 percent of one fund and 8 percent of the other 
to cover administrative costs related to distributing money to the 
states. Whatever Fish and Wildlife did not use at the end of the year 
is supposed to go back to the states for more recovery programs.
  In the hearings, we heard from the General Accounting Office (GAO), a 
non-partisan federal auditing agency that the Federal Aid Program 
within Fish and Wildlife is ``one of the worst managed programs we've 
ever encountered.'' Fish and Wildlife has been caught red-handed 
spending funds Congress specifically designated to support conservation 
and wildlife management. We learned from GAO that rather than returning 
money to the States, over $30 million was spent on trips to Japan, 
expensive hotels and dinners, and other unauthorized expenses. They had 
at least separate slush funds within Fish and Wildlife used for pet 
projects never approved by Congress. In fact, some of these projects 
were specifically forbidden. Money was spent on ``International 
Affairs, the Peoples Republic of China,'' ``International Affairs, 
NAFTA,'' and other mysterious items unrelated to conservation. When the 
committee asked, Assistant Interior Secretary Donald Barry, and 
Director of Fish and Wildlife Service Jamie Clark could not provide an 
explanation on how this money was helping with conservation and 
wildlife management in the United States.
  We learned that money was also used to fund bonuses for employees who 
weren't even working for Fish and Wildlife, and, in some cases, to 
people who weren't even working for the federal government. In 
addition, employees who have no authority were signing off travel well 
above the federal limits, on trips in excess of $75,000. Believe it or 
not, it gets worse. They tried to use these administrative funds, meant 
to pay a phone bill or buy a desk, to buy an island near Hawaii. The 
cost of this remote island was $30 million. Fish and Wildlife said it 
was important to ducks that the Island be preserved. When Congress 
looked into the island further we found a total of 10 ducks on the 
Island.
  Unfortunately, this is just one program in one agency within the 
Department of Interior, and there are still several million dollars 
within Pittman-Robertson, Dingell-Johnson and Fish and Wildlife no one 
seems to know where it was spent. At the final hearing, I asked for the 
resignation of Ms. Clark and Mr. Barry if they could not find out where 
this money was going and stop the waste and illegal spending. Rather 
than spending $3 million per duck in a remote Island, Fish and Wildlife 
Service should let the people of Colorado use this money toward 
something that actually helps conservation and wildlife.

                          ____________________