[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 18853]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 18853]]

                   CONSERVATION AND REINVESTMENT ACT

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I come to the floor to say a brief word 
about an extraordinary and very positive statement that the President 
of the United States made in the last 45 minutes as he gathered on the 
south lawn of the White House with a group of supporters of another 
very important bill--an issue we have actually debated for many hours 
and helped to usher through called the Conservation and Reinvestment 
Act.
  The President, just this morning, called on us, in a bipartisan 
fashion, not to miss the opportunity to push forward on this very 
important piece of legislation--one which his administration has 
supported and helped to design. The Conservation and Reinvestment Act 
is really Congress's way of responding to a need that the American 
people have and have expressed themselves clearly on over and over, 
from the South to the North, from the East to the West, in meetings, 
through polling information that we have, through calls made to this 
Congress, through letters written, through e-mails sent--to say to us 
that now is the time to set aside a small but significant portion of 
the surplus that we have to invest--not for 1 year, or 6 months, not 
occasionally when we can, but to invest permanently a stream of revenue 
for conservation programs in our Nation.
  I guess I can speak so passionately about this issue because the 
money we are speaking about investing is coming from offshore oil and 
gas revenues, 85 percent of which are produced off of the coast of 
Louisiana. We are proud of that production. We are doing it in a much 
more environmentally sensitive way and have been doing it for 50 years. 
But all of the revenue generated off of that oil and gas production has 
gone to the Federal Treasury. It is hard to account for how they have 
been spent, and they have not been spent for environmental investments 
for our Nation--a promise that was made 30 years ago but not kept.
  So the Conservation and Reinvestment Act, which the President spoke 
about and continues to urge us to move forward on, is a way for us to 
redirect appropriately and in a very fiscally responsible way some of 
those revenues back to our States and local governments to help with 
the expansion of our parks and recreation areas in both rural and urban 
areas, for the preservation and restoration of our coastlines.
  We in Louisiana feel strongly about getting some help from Washington 
to restore an eroding coastline, helping us to invest in wildlife 
conservation and preservation and, in many ways, including historic 
preservation. I will give to the staff a list of the 63 Senators, 
Republicans and Democrats, who are supporting this legislation, to 
acknowledge again in the Record the great work that the House 
leadership did--Congressman Don Young, Congressman John Dingell, and 
Congressman George Miller, leaders in the House.
  It has truly been a bipartisan-bicameral effort.
  I will submit for the Record the names of 63 Senators who the 
President mentioned in his remarks this morning, thanking us for our 
support and joining with him in this effort, and finally shaping this 
bill in such a way that both parties can be proud, for which we in 
Louisiana can be grateful, and that Governors and mayors and elected 
officials and leaders all across our Nation can be happy to work on in 
partnership with the Federal Government to make a significant, 
meaningful, reliable investment now as we begin this century--something 
our children and our grandchildren can count on for a more beautiful 
nation in 2025 or 2050. We can't wait. This is the year to make it a 
reality.
  I thank the Chair. Again, I thank Senator Lott and Senator Daschle 
for their excellent leadership.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. I thank the Chair. I thank the Senator from Louisiana 
for her excellent work. I just had three members of the department of 
natural resources of Minnesota in my office today encouraging me to 
support this measure. It is very important legislation.

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