[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 19]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 25873-25874]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




    REQUESTING CLARIFICATION OF REPORT LANGUAGE ON ENERGY AND WATER 
                    APPROPRIATIONS CONFERENCE REPORT

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JAY INSLEE

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, November 14, 2005

  Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express concern with report 
language that was included in the Fiscal Year 2006 Energy and Water 
Appropriations Conference Report (H. Rpt. 109-275). It is my hope that 
you can assist me in my efforts to seek clarification. The

[[Page 25874]]

final conference report contains language directing the Bonneville 
Power Administration (BPA) to cease funding of an important independent 
scientific research center based in the Pacific Northwest, known as the 
Fish Passage Center. The language directs BPA and the Northwest Power 
and Conservation Council (NPCC) to transfer the functions of the Fish 
Passage Center in a way that ensures ``seamless continuity of 
activities'' without giving any direction about how this transfer 
should take place.
  The Northwest Power Act called for the NPCC to establish a Fish and 
Wildlife Program. That Program has called for BPA to fund the Fish 
Passage Center for the past 20 years. The data and analyses the Center 
has provided have been invaluable to the States and tribal fishery 
managers of the Columbia Basin. BPA should be clear that this report 
language does not supersede the NW Power Act or the specific provisions 
in the NPCC's present Fish and Wildlife program calling for a number of 
key functions to be performed. I certainly would assume that BPA will 
ensure that the State and tribal fishery managers will have input into 
how the Center is reconstituted and will take actions to ensure that 
the fishery managers continue to receive the same independent analyses 
they have in the past.

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