Senate Up To Its Old Tricks
(06/24/1999) - Defenders of Wildlife panned today’s Senate markup of the FY 2000 Interior
Appropriations Bill as "unfortunate business as usual." Citing multiple
anti-environmental riders attached to the bill in subcommittee, Defenders warned
of excessively damaging and dangerous, precedent-setting attacks on various
aspects of the environment.
"Here we go again," said Rodger Schlickeisen, President of Defenders of
Wildlife. "We’re on defense, trying to prevent the anti- environmental forces in
Congress from rolling back environmental protections that the American public
has stated time and again they want. These forces have learned that attacking
our environmental laws outright is a terribly unpopular thing to do. That’s why
they continue to resort to these secret, back-door tactics, hoping no one will
notice."
During the Senate Appropriations full-committee markup today, at least ten
anti-environmental riders were included. On Tuesday, the Senate Interior
subcommittee attached nine riders to the Interior spending bill for FY 2000. The
riders approved today ranged from attacks on grazing policy to national forest
planning to site-specific riders such as one to increase red cedar harvest on
the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. Two riders are of particular interest to
Defenders. One is designed to prevent grizzly bear introduction in Montana and
Idaho, and the other would undermine science-based management of national forest
and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands.
The rider to prevent grizzly introduction (Sec. 328) not only would be
disastrous for grizzly recovery but also would set a very dangerous legal
precedent. The rider would ensure that no grizzly bears could be introduced in
Montana or Idaho without written consent from the governors of those states.
This would create a situation in which a federal Endangered Species Act program
on federal lands would be regulated by the states. In addition, this rider would
derail a collaborative effort by local timber, conservation, and labor interests
to restore grizzly bears to the Selway-Bitterroot ecosystem in Idaho and
Montana.
The rider that attacks science-based management of certain public lands (Sec.
329) aims to nullify a recent U.S. Court of Appeals ruling and provides the
Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior broad discretion during FY 2000 to
choose whether or not to collect any new, and potentially significant,
information concerning wildlife resources on the National Forest System or BLM
lands. The secretaries could exercise such discretion prior to amending or
revising resource management plans, issuing leases, or otherwise authorizing or
undertaking management activities.
"At least they’re consistent," said Schlickeisen. "Every year, they try these
same closed-room, back-door tactics knowing that in a full floor debate, most of
these measures would not stand a chance. So they throw them on as riders, hoping
they’ll get lost in the shuffle and that no one will care. They’re wrong; we
care, and the American public cares. Americans have a right to a strong
environment and to a healthy natural heritage to pass on to their children.
Congress needs to stop these sneak attacks on our environment and on our rights.
And if it won’t do so, then the President has to use his veto pen."
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Anti-Environmental Riders
FY 2000 Senate Interior Appropriations Bill
- Sec. 117: Allow Grazing Without Environmental Review
- would allow the Bureau
of Land Management to reauthorize grazing permits without allotment-specific
National Environmental Policy Act documents, Federal Land Policy Management Act
analysis or Endangered Species Act requirements through FY 1999 or until the
Bureau completes processing. This provision provides an escape clause for the
Bureau that allows it to delay the analysis required by the law as recently
interpreted by the courts.
Sec. 320: Delay National Forest Planning - would impose a funding limitation
to halt the revision of any forest plans not already undergoing revision, except
for the 11 forests legally mandated to have their plans completed during
calendar year 2000, until final or interim final planning regulations are
adopted. There is concern that this provision will put pressure on the Forest
Service to hastily promulgate new regulations, rather than carefully
incorporating recommendations developed by an independent Committee of
Scientists. Sec. 321 in the bill would halt funding to carry out strategic
planning under the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act
(RPA).
Sec 325: Divert Trail Fund for "Forest Health" Logging - allows the ten per
cent roads and trails fund to be used to "improve forest health conditions."
Since there are no restrictions limiting the use to non-commercial activities,
and logging is considered a "forest health" activity, this fund could be used to
fund timber sales. It also represents a back door method to fund more logging
roads for salvage and commercial timber operations. This rider also eliminates
the requirement that the roads and trails fund be spent in the same state the
money is generated when used for these purposes. This opens the distribution of
these funds to the political process, allowing all the funding to go to one
state or region with more political clout. Since there is a salvage fund and
other sources such as vegetation management monies already available for this
type of use and already open to abuse, this rider is unnecessary and potentially
destructive.
Sec. 327: Tongass Red Cedar Rider - seeks to create an incentive to maximize
timber harvest on Alaska’s Tongass National Forest by leveraging the amount of
Western Red Cedar available for export to the lower 48 and internationally
against the percentage of the Tongass’ allowable sale quantity (ASQ) that is
actually sold. While Western Red Cedar makes up only a small portion of the
timber sold on the Tongass, Section 327 stipulates that the only way in which
interested manufacturers in the lower 48 can have access to all of the surplus
Western Red Cedar logged in FY 2000 is if the forest’s entire allowable sale
quantity is sold. In FY 1998 of the approximately 187 million board feet offered
for sale on the Tongass roughly 160 million board feet did not attract even a
single bid, primarily due to bad timber markets. The ASQ for the Tongass in FY
98 was 257 million board feet. Hence, under Section 327 only a very small
percentage of Western Red Cedar actually sold would be available to the lower
48. Moreover, the rider requires that the sold timber must have at least a 60
percent guaranteed profit margin for the purchaser, continuing to maintain the
Tongass’s timber program as our National Forest System’s largest money
loser.
Sec. 328: Prevent Grizzly Bear Introduction - would be disastrous for grizzly
bear recovery and sets a very dangerous legislative precedent. This language
prohibits the Department of the Interior and all other federal agencies from
expending funds in any fiscal year to introduce grizzly bears anywhere in Idaho
and Montana without express written consent of the governors of those two
states. The language requires federal agencies to get state permission to
implement a federal law on federal lands and sets a broad precedent, both for
other endangered species recovery actions and for all other federal laws.
Moreover, this provision would derail a five-year collaborative effort initiated
by local timber, conservation, and labor interests to restore grizzly bears to
the Selway-Bitterroot ecosystem in Idaho and Montana, the largest roadless area
remaining in the lower forty-eight states. This reintroduction is vital to
grizzly bear recovery in the lower forty-eight states. Finally, both Idaho and
Montana have existing populations of grizzly bears outside the Selway-Bitterroot
ecosystem. This restrictive language is so unclear and broad that it could
prohibit actions such as population augmentations or the movement of problem
bears within existing recovery populations (e.g. Glacier and Yellowstone
National Parks).
Sec. 329: Undermine Science-based Management of National Forest and Bureau of
Land Management Lands - attempts to provide the Secretaries of Agriculture and
Interior broad discretion during FY 2000 to choose whether or not to collect any
new, and potentially significant, information concerning wildlife resources on
the National Forest System or Bureau of Land Management Lands prior to amending
or revising resource management plans, issuing leases, or otherwise authorizing
or undertaking management activities. This section seeks to overturn a February
18, 1999 decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
that the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia had violated the law by not
maintaining population data on management indicator species as required under 36
C.F.R. 219.19, or sensitive species as required under its own forest management
plan. However, the implications of Section 329 extend far beyond any single
national forest. For example, the Forest Service could attempt to use the
language of Section 329 to undercut full implementation of, and accountability
under, the NW Forest Plan. This section’s "don’t ask, don’t tell" approach may
invite the Forest Service to take a shortcut around the information collection
and analysis required by the plan -- undercutting the basis on which Judge Dwyer
upheld the plan, as well as recent Ninth Circuit case law. Beyond seeking to
undermine existing law, Section 329 directly contradicts the overall direction
recommended by the Committee of Scientists for land management planning on
national forests. Its attempt to provide agencies the discretion to bypass
existing information gathering requirements on wildlife resources prior to
making land management planning and activity decisions undermines the very
ability to arrive at scientifically credible conservation strategies. Section
329 is not the first "don’t ask, don’t tell" rider offered in an attempt to
allow the government to forego the collection and consideration of important
scientific information. The 1995 salvage logging rider also adopted this
approach in some significant ways with harsh results for government
accountability and ultimate credibility.
Sec. 330: Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Project - would require that the
Secretaries to prepare a report prior to the publication of the Project’s final
EIS. This requirement will divert needed funding that is needed to complete the
final EIS and is another in a long series of congressional attempts to undermine
the analysis of the ecological conditions that prevail in the Interior Columbia
Basin due to the excessive logging and grazing on federal lands.
Sec. 335: Stewardship End Result Contracting Demonstration Project - is a
continuation of the "Rider" contained in the FY 1999 Interior Appropriations Act
that would permit the Forest Service to contract with private entities to
perform services to achieve land management goals in national forests in Idaho
and Montana, and in the Umatilla National Forest in Oregon. Land management
goals include a variety of activities such as restoration of wildlife and fish
habitat, noncommercial cutting or removal of trees to reduce fire hazards, and
control of exotic weeds. While the stated land management goals, provision for
multi-year contracts, and annual reporting requirements are worthy, there are
three major drawbacks contained in the language of the FY 1999 law: undefined
community roles, the lack of provisions for monitoring and oversight, and the
funding mechanism for desired work. This provision was added at the request of
Senator Conrad Burns in Subcommittee.
Weaken 1872 Mining Law - would weaken the 1872 Mining Law to allow certain
mining operations to dump more toxic mining wastes on federal public land.
Senator Harry Reid (D-NV), supported by Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), attached
this rider in Subcommittee markup. The 1872 mining law states that for every 20-
acre mineral claim, mining companies are allowed one, and only one, 5- acre site
for the processing or dumping of mine wastes. The Reid rider lets mines that
have already been approved (whether or not they are yet in operation) and all
grandfathered "patent" applications (applications to buy federal land for $2.50
to $5.00 an acre) to simply ignore that portion of the law, and to use an
unlimited amount of federal public land as a waste dump. In full committee mark
up (6/24) Sen. Craig successfully attached an amendment which expanded the Reid
rider to permanently override this same section of the 1872 Mining Law.
Preserve Subsidies for Oil Industry - would further delay the long awaited
Oil Valuation Rule from going into effect, thus allowing oil and gas industries
to dodge millions of dollars in oil royalties until October 2000. This rider was
successfully attached in the full committee mark-up (6/24) by Senators Domenici
(R-NM) and Hutchison (R-TX). The Oil Valuation Rule, which has been subject to
more than two years of comments and discussion was scheduled to go into effect
last year.
This list was compiled by Defenders of Wildlife using write-ups received from
numerous groups in the conservation community.
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Contact(s):
Cat Lazaroff, (202) 772-3270
