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For Immediate Release
Interior Spending Bill Threatens Environment
Bill Slashes Conservation Spending and Undermines Environmental Protections
WASHINGTON , DC -- Defenders of Wildlife today was strongly critical of H.R. 2691, the final Interior appropriations bill, saying it cuts funding for the landmark Conservation Trust Fund by nearly half a billion dollars, strips important environmental protections, opens new lands to development, and severely restricts public participation in key environmental management decisions.
"This bill violates the historic commitment made by Congress just three years ago to provide guaranteed funding for a host of important conservation programs," said Mary Beth Beetham, Director of Legislative Affairs for Defenders of Wildlife. "Congress is up to its old tricks again – using must-pass bills and stealth attacks to undermine our nation’s environmental laws and chip away at protections for wildlife and our environment."
The historic Conservation Trust Fund was established in 2000 in a broadly supported bipartisan effort to provide desperately needed funding for programs at the federal, state and local level that protect wildlife, wildlands, parks, open spaces, our coasts and our oceans. The Interior spending bill abandons the Fund and cuts it by about $450 million, despite efforts by a bipartisan group of 56 Senators led by Senators Corzine (D-NJ) and Snowe, (R-ME) who sent a letter to House and Senate negotiators supporting the Trust Fund and Representatives Dicks (D-WA) and Obey (D-WI) who have fought hard through the entire appropriations process to protect the Fund.
The bill takes particular aim at the centerpiece of the Conservation Trust, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), slashing it by about $140 million or 34% below the FY 2003 level and about $300 million or 52% below FY 2002 . The LWCF provides money to federal, state and local governments to purchase land, water and wetlands from willing sellers at market rates for the benefit of all Americans. It is the primary mechanism for protecting lands for our national forests, wildlife refuges and parks and has been the subject of frequent attacks by Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC), the new chairman of the House subcommittee in charge of the bill.
Anti-environmental riders slipped into H.R. 2691 include ones that would: significantly restrict the public’s ability to challenge harmful logging in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, home to grizzly bears, bald eagles, wolves and prolific salmon runs; allow automatic renewal of grazing permits on sensitive public lands without review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) over the next four years; and exempt logging of old-growth trees in threatened grizzly bear habitat on two national forests in Montana from important requirements of NEPA and the Clean Water Act, while rushing reviews under the Endangered Species Act. The bill removes protections imposed by Congress after the Exxon Valdez disaster that extend a longstanding moratorium on oil and gas leasing activities in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, site of one of the largest red salmon runs in the world. The final version of H.R. 2691 also removes a safeguard added by the House this summer that would have blocked a new rule allowing giveaways of sensitive areas in national parks, wildlife refuges and monuments for road construction.
"Between the Bush administration and the anti-environmental leadership of this Congress, our government is shifting from being one of the great protectors of our natural resources to one of the environment's most prolific exploiters. With each bill and rule change, we chip away at decades of bipartisan support for conservation programs and further erode the environmental legacy we leave our children," Beetham concluded.
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Defenders of Wildlife is a leading nonprofit conservation organization recognized as one of the nation's most progressive advocates for wildlife and its habitat. With more than 430,000 members and supporters, 90,000 in California alone, Defenders of Wildlife is an effective leader on endangered species issues. To stay current on hot topics in wildlife conservation, subscribe to DENlines, Defenders of Wildlife’s electronic update and action alert network. To subscribe to DENlines or for more information on Defenders of Wildlife projects, please visit www.defenders.org.
