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FY 2000 BUDGET RIDERS REPORT

In the first session of the 106th Congress, unfortunately a number of environmentally damaging legislative riders were attached to fiscal year 2000 appropriations bills. However, the environmental community achieved significant victories by defeating the most egregious legislative riders or by modifying them so that they are no longer objectionable. The riders below were either modified or defeated.

Environmentally Destructive Riders Modified or Defeated

• Senator Byrd (D-WV) and other members of the West Virginia congressional delegation tried to attach a rider at the eleventh hour that would have exempted mountaintop removal coal mining from federal and state water protections and surface mining laws. In mountaintop removal mining, coal companies blast away entire mountaintops to reach coal seams and dump the leftover rock and earth into adjacent valleys, burying streams under millions of tons of mining waste. The rider would have exempted mountaintop removal mining operations from complying with the water quality standards of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the stream protection provisions of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) for two years, or until new federal regulations of valley-fills are issued. Any rider that would allow coal mining interests in West Virginia or elsewhere to dump industrial wastes into miles of protected streams in violation of federal and state environmental protections creates a special interest loophole in the CWA. Even if the rider was limited to two years, the valleys and streams destroyed in those two years would be lost forever. To increase support in the Senate for his coal mining rider, Senator Byrd eventually introduced an expanded version of the rider that granted an exemption to mountaintop coal operations anywhere in the country, but also included a proposal to allow unlimited dumping of toxic hardrock mining wastes on public lands and to block new, more protective hardrock mining regulations. Senator Byrd was unsuccessful in attaching this rider to an appropriations bill because of President Clinton’s threat to veto any bill that included this rider. However, he was able to force a recorded vote (56-33) on his rider by attaching it to a resolution that was not going to be enacted. Senator Byrd likely will try to add this rider to a funding bill this year.
  
  
• Reps. Strickland (D-OH), Oxley (R-OH), Tiahrt (R-KS), and Burr (R-NC) unsuccessfully tried to attach a rider to the omnibus spending bill that would have provided immunity for coal-fired power plants from violations of the Clean Air Act. This rider was designed to immunize coal-fired electric power plants from liability in a Clean Air Act enforcement action brought by the federal government. The federal government alleges that these utilities failed to implement required pollution controls while they made major modifications to their facilities. This rider would have barred government enforcement of Clean Air Act requirements arising out of any physical or operations change at any electric power plant unless the maximum hourly emissions exceed the maximum hourly emissions that were achievable in the last five years. It also would have tolled penalties for Clean Air Act violations at coal-fired power plants (rewarding them for continuing pollution), eliminated liability for emission increases resulting from continuing operations at facilities after November 1, 1999, and allowed emissions at coal-fired power plants to increase. Under this rider, utilities could have significantly increased their nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and particulate emissions, thereby endangering health and welfare.
  
  
• Another potential rider would have delayed new protections for the last 60 million acres of roadless wilderness areas. A last-minute legislative rider, which was ultimately rejected, would have extended the public comment period for new roadless rules, thereby delaying President Clinton’s unprecedented roadless initiative into the next administration. On October 13, 1999, the Clinton administration announced a major new conservation plan to protect up to 60 million acres of roadless wilderness in our national forests, roughly doubling the national forest acreage currently off limits to development. Roadless areas are ecologically significant in their own right, provide the highest-quality remaining habitat for fish and wildlife, and make up many of the last undisturbed old-growth forest reserves. The Forest Service will decide how to protect these areas, but at a minimum it will prohibit roadbuilding. To implement the proposal, however, the Administration must issue regulations and provide a public comment period. This rider would have delayed these regulations.
  
  
• House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Packard (R-CA) included provisions in the House version of the Energy and Water Appropriations bill that would have allowed destruction of valuable wetlands. House/Senate conferees successfully removed the most objectionable provisions from this damaging wetlands rider. As originally written, the rider would have delayed implementation of revised nationwide permits that the Army Corps of Engineers has been developing for more than two years by first requiring a new study to be completed. Although the final version of the rider that became law still requires a study, the study cannot be used to delay issuance of the new nationwide permit program. The original rider also would have provided developers with a new opportunity to sue the government when the government first asserts jurisdiction over wetlands. While the modified rider still directs the Corps to establish a new process enabling land owners to appeal wetlands designation, developers cannot take their case straight to court; rather, developers must follow the normal appeals process. (The Energy and Water Appropriations bill, Pub.L.No. 106-60, Title I)
  
  
• Senate VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Bond (R-MO) included provisions in the VA-HUD appropriations bill that would have required special certification for public interest non-profit groups. Fortunately, the VA-HUD appropriations conferees agreed to drop this damaging rider from the final spending bill. It would have prohibited the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from awarding funds to non-profit organizations unless those organizations "certify" that they have never used federal funds to engage in litigation against the United States government. This unprecedented provision was designed to harass and intimidate public interest groups that sue the federal government and have experienced success in achieving enforcement of federal law. It could have been used to prevent nonprofits from receiving EPA funds if they inadvertently make a minor accounting error or have not retained decades-old accounting documentation.
  
  
• Senate VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Bond (R-MO) also included a rider in the VA-HUD appropriations bill that would have created new penalties and obligations designed to harass nonprofit groups. This rider was modified adequately in the final spending bill and clarified by Chairman Bond and Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) on the Senate floor on October 15, 1999. The original provision could also have been used to harass and intimidate public interest groups that sue the federal government and who have experienced success in achieving enforcement of federal law. It would have prohibited the use of federal funds for lobbying or litigating "including any related activity or cost" and required that non-profits that sue the government establish a completely separate account for funds received from EPA in fiscal year 2000. Moreover, any organization that accidentally intermingled lobbying and litigation funds with federal funds would be barred from receiving any federal funds for five years under the VA-HUD appropriations bill. (VA-HUD and Independent Agencies Appropriations bill, Pub.L. No. 106-74)
  
  
• Senate VA-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Bond (R-MO) also attached provisions in the VA-HUD funding bill that would have prevented nonprofit groups and researchers from educating the public on legislative proposals. As originally written, this rider could have potentially blocked public interest groups, researchers and contractors from using federal funds to educate the public on issues currently being considered by Congress. It would have prohibited federal funds from being used for "any activity or the publication or distribution of literature that is designed to promote public support or opposition to any legislative proposal on which congressional action is not complete." Recognizing these problems, the House and Senate VA-HUD conferees modified the language in the final spending bill so that it applies only to federal agencies and not to non-profit federal grantees. (VA-HUD and Independent Agencies Appropriations bill, Pub.L. No. 106-74)
  
  
• Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Stevens (R-AK) added a rider to the Commerce, Justice, State spending bill that would have waived application of the Endangered Species Act to endangered and threatened salmon native to, or traveling through, Alaskan waters. The original version of the rider would have eliminated recovery options for the few remaining endangered and threatened salmon that migrate into Alaska from Washington and Oregon. The much improved final language of rider adds bureaucratic obstacles before the Commerce Department can consider additional harvest reductions in the Alaskan salmon fishery, but the Endangered Species Act remains in force. Before initiating consultation on the Alaskan fishery, the agency must (1) conduct a consultation on the southern fisheries (Washington, Oregon, and Snake River basin of Idaho); (2) give the Pacific Salmon Treaty a "reasonable opportunity" to be implemented; (3) check with the Pacific Salmon Commission to confirm that treaty implementation is failing to bring salmon back to "maximum sustainable yield"; and (4) notify the relevant committees in Congress that consultation is about to begin. While the new language adds cost, bureaucracy and delay to possible future actions in the Alaskan fisheries, it does not waive the basic tenents of the law as the original rider did, and in fact some of these additional requirements may be useful. It also sends a clear message from Congress to salmon managers that further restrictions on the Alaskan fishery may come only after other impacts on imperiled salmon have been considered. (VA-HUD and Independent Agencies Appropriations bill, Pub.L. No. 106-74)
  
  
• Senator Bennett (R-UT) added a rider to the Interior bill in conference that would have delayed important hardrock mining regulations. This rider was designed to block or delay the Department of Interior’s attempt to strengthen environmental controls applicable to hardrock mines (the so-called "3809 regulations"). Current regulations, which would have been replaced by the more protective 3809 regulations, were put in place in 1981 by Interior Secretary James Watt and have left a legacy of irresponsible mining that includes a several hundred million dollar abandoned mine cleanup tab for American taxpayers and a litany of environmental disasters such as cyanide-laced community drinking water and biologically dead streams. In 1997, the Department of Interior began a formal rulemaking process to update the outdated 3809 regulations. The conference committee substantially improved the rider and it is no longer objectionable. The final rider language allows Interior to issue the new 3809 regulations as long as they are not inconsistent with recommendations made in the National Academy of Sciences’ report on current hardrock rules. (Sec. 357 of H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113)
  
  
• Senator Craig (R-ID) originally added this rider to the Interior bill to impede science-based management of national forest and Bureau of Land Management lands. The rider would have provided the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management with broad discretion during fiscal year 2000 to choose whether or not to collect new scientific information on wildlife resources when amending or revising resource management plans, issuing leases, or otherwise authorizing or undertaking management activities. Specifically, the Forest Service could have used this rider to avoid proper implementation of the Northwest Forest Plan. This rider was deleted from the final spending bill because the Clinton administration objected to it.
  
  
• Originally inserted into the bill on behalf of Senator Gorton (R-WA), this rider would have effectively waived NEPA requirements for a land exchange in Washington state. The original rider would have required the Secretary of Agriculture to complete a land exchange in Washington State with Plum Creek Timber Company within 30 days of the enactment of the appropriations bill. This mandate could have circumvented the National Environmental Policy Act’s (NEPA) public participation and environmental review requirements. The proposal to give Plum Creek the Watch Mountain roadless area and old growth groves in Fossil Creek (both now parts of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest) has sparked significant opposition. The rider could have cut short full consideration of the public’s concerns and blocked judicial review of the adequacy of any environmental analysis. The rider also would have also ordered the Forest Service to identify additional lands to be traded to Plum Creek Timber Company. While this rider was satisfactorily amended to address the largest problems, nothing was added to address the potential waiver of NEPA requirements. (H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113)
  
  
• Another rider, added by Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Gorton (R-WA) to the Senate Interior spending bill, would have provided a special deal for Washington grazing interests. This rider would have renewed and extended livestock grazing within the popular Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, a popular vacation spot along the Columbia River in Washington state. The National Park Service prohibited livestock grazing within the Lake Roosevelt Recreation Area in 1990, giving ranchers who used Lake Roosevelt several years to find new land for their cattle. By 1997, livestock grazing had ceased within the National Recreation Area. This rider would have overruled the National Park Service’s expert decision to halt grazing reinstated grazing practices for the benefit of 10 ranchers on 1,000 acres of National Park lands there. This rider was deleted from the final spending bill in negotiations with the Administration.
  
  
• Yet another rider affecting land conservation was added to the Interior bill; this rider would have delayed critical land acquisition in the Columbia River Gorge national scenic area. As originally written, this rider would have significantly compromised the public land acquisition process in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area by requiring that the Forest Service and landowners enter into written purchase option agreements where landowners can opt-out of the purchase option agreement at any time, and which provide unnecessary and burdensome obligations on the government’s acquisition process. This provision would have established a dangerous precedent for land protection because it would have applied new standards that differ from the long-standing federal acquisition policies for land. It would have impeded conservation efforts in the Columbia Gorge and set the stage for similarly unproductive "reforms" in other land acquisitions. This rider was also deleted in conference committee from the final spending bill under pressure from the Administration.
  
  
• Senator Bryan (D-NV) and Senator Reid (D-NV) attached a rider to the Senate Interior funding bill that would have delayed implementation of noise standards in the Grand Canyon National Park. The original rider was crafted to stop the National Park Service from implementing sound thresholds in the Grand Canyon until the agency gave Congress a peer-reviewed report on the scientific basis for noise standards. However, it was deleted from the final Interior spending bill in conference committee negotiations with the Clinton administration.
  
  
• Another unsuccessful rider would have interfered with the introduction of grizzly bears into Idaho and Montana. In negotiations with congressional appropriators, the Clinton administration successfully removed this rider, which would have set a dangerous legislative precedent for grizzly bear recovery efforts and prevented federal funds from being used in fiscal year 2000 to introduce grizzly bears into Idaho and Montana. Specifically, the original version of the rider would have prohibited the federal government from spending funds in any fiscal year to introduce grizzly bears anywhere in Idaho and Montana without the written consent of the governors of those two states. Its language would have required federal agencies to get state permission to implement a federal law on federal lands and set a terrible precedent for other endangered species recovery actions and other federal laws. Moreover, this provision would have derailed 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 48 states.
  
  
• The original rider, added by Senator Cochran (R-MS) to the Interior funding bill would have interfered with federal energy efficiency programs. The rider would have blocked funding for the study, development and implementation of procedures and policies to establish energy efficiency, energy use, or energy acquisition rules or guidelines other than those in the Energy Conservation Policy Act (ECPA) of 1975. The effect of this provision was to block implementation of Executive Order 13,123, which requires a 35 percent reduction in energy use in federal buildings over the next 10 years with expected savings to taxpayers of $1 billion per year. Fortunately, the final rider added to the bill on the Senate floor was modified to allow the Executive Order 13,123 on energy efficiency to remain intact. (Sec. 349 of H.R. 3423 as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113)
  
  
• Rep. Klink (D-PA) added a rider to the Interior spending bill on the House floor that would have blocked improvements for Gettysburg National Military Park. Rep. Klink’s rider would have overturned the results of an exhaustive public process that endorsed efforts by the National Park Service to improve its management of the Gettysburg National Military Park. The rider would have halted plans to return the battlefield and the Soldiers National Cemetery to their historic conditions and would have blocked the implementation of a long-term solution to preserve Gettysburg’s artifacts and archives. This rider also would have prevented the federal government from acquiring the Wills House where President Lincoln spent the night before delivering the Gettysburg Address and construction of a museum and visitor center. This rider was eliminated in conference committee from the final spending bill.
  
  
• Another rider in the Interior appropriations bill would have prohibited funding for the Biosphere Reserves created through the Man and the Biosphere program (MAB). The MAB is a domestic program providing a framework for international cooperation on environmental issues, with a long-term goal of contributing to a sustainable society. Created in 1972, MAB funds interdisciplinary research on ecosystem sustainability, global change, and biological diversity. Biosphere Reserves, such as the Southern Appalachian Biosphere Reserve, are voluntarily designated for research on ecosystems and sustainable development. Riders in both the House and Senate bills that would have prevented the use of Interior funding for Biosphere Reserves were removed from the final Interior bill in conference committee.
  
  
• Senator Domenici (R-NM) and Senator Hutchison (R-TX) included a rider to allow the oil industry to continue underpaying oil and gas royalties. This rider delays implementation by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) of a new oil valuation rule that is designed to ensure that major oil companies cannot continue their practice of underpaying royalties owed to the American taxpayer. These senators have successfully delayed implementation of the MMS rule four times; each delay allows that oil companies to retain tens of millions of dollars that should be paid to the federal and state governments. These royalties would be paid to the Land and Water Conservation Fund and to state public education programs. Although the final version of this rider delays issuance of the new federal oil royalty valuation rules until March 15, 2000, the Clinton administration received a commitment from Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Gorton that he would oppose any effort next year to extend this delay beyond March 15. While this represents substantial progress, it does not necessarily preclude additional efforts to delay this rule. (Sec. 141 of H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113)
  
  
• Senator Craig (R-ID) attached this very damaging rider in full committee to weaken the 1872 Mining Law by allowing mining companies to dump toxic mining waste without limitation on the number of acres it destroys. While the Clinton administration successfully got the Interior conferees to modify this rider to eliminate many of its worse provisions, the rider still exempts a number of mines from complying with the one provision of the 1872 Mining Law that protects the environment and taxpayers: the "millsite provision". The millsite provision states that for every 20-acre mining claim, mining companies are allowed one 5-acre site for processing or dumping mine wastes. Mines that are exempted are those with approved plans of operation, those with grandfathered patent applications, and applicants whose plans of operation were submitted before November, 7, 1997. The environmental impact of the final language depends upon how broadly these exemptions are interpreted. (Sec. 337 of H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113)
  
  
• Senator Shelby (R-AL) attached a rider that would have established a transit cap on state transit programs. The rider would have dismantled the current statutory formula to fund state transit projects. Had this rider passed, funding for transit projects in New York and California would have been sharply reduced, and new transit projects in other states, such as new rail systems, may have been jeopardized. Funds would no longer be based on need but would be allocated to states equally, and these funds could then be redirected to highway funding rather than mass transit projects. Senator Feinstein (D-CA) strongly opposed this provision and was able to ensure that it was deleted from the bill as it reached the Senate floor.

Environmentally Destructive Riders in FY 2000 Appropriations Bills

Despite the best efforts of the Clinton administration, environmental leaders in Congress on both sides of the aisle, and the environmental community, the number of destructive riders increased last year. As a result, despite the substantial victories described above, a number of damaging legislative riders were enacted into law last year on fiscal year 2000 appropriations bills. Some of these riders are included in the text of the law. Others are added to report language, which is prepared by the relevant congressional committees as explanation of their congressional intent. Report language is not technically the law but is often considered mandatory by agencies.

• Rep. Knollenberg (R-MI), added a rider to the Commerce, Justice, State funding bill that could limit preparation for climate protection by prohibiting the State Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from using federal funds "to propose or issue rules, regulations, degrees, or orders for the purpose of implementing, or in preparation for the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol." The rider ignores the United States’ existing commitments to reduce emissions under the 1992 Senate-ratified Rio Treaty. This rider’s language is similar to that attached to the EPA’s FY 1999 spending bill. This rider may limit the federal government’s ability to both address the international implications of climate change and help other countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other global warming pollutants internationally. This appears to be a deliberate attempt to prevent the Administration from working with the international community on climate change issues. (H.R. 3421, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113, Sec. 621)
  
  
• Rep. Hayworth (R-AZ) successfully added language to the Commerce, Justice, State appropriations bill on the House floor by a vote of 217-209, which prohibits funding for U.S. World Heritage Sites in Danger. The rider prevents federal funding for sites in the United States that are on the list of "World Heritage Sites in Danger." Sites on the list include Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks, the Florida Everglades and the Grand Canyon. World Heritage Sites are recognized internationally for their significant cultural or natural resource values, are at most risk of destruction and receive international support for their protection. (H.R. 3421, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113, Sec. 630)
  
  
• Rep. Emerson (R-MO) added a rider to the House Commerce, Justice, and State spending bill, which interferes with ongoing assessments of climate change effects. The conference committee dropped the rider from the text of the final bill, but included it as report language. This report language hinders review of current government research on the effects of climate change by mandating that all supporting research be subject to peer review and made publicly available by federal agencies before it can be used in federal assessments of climate change effects required under the Global Change Research Act of 1990. Through this rider, the conference committee is imposing additional bureaucratic requirements on climate change assessments and needlessly limiting how the results of independent research can be used when making those assessments. (Conference Committee Report accompanying H.R. 3194)
  
  
• Damaging report language in the Commerce, Justice, and State funding bill prohibits funding for development of National Environmental Economic Indicators. This rider prohibits the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) from funding its Integrated Environmental-Economic Accounting, or "Green GDP", initiative. This initiative requires the BEA and other agencies to factor into national income accounts the depletion of natural resources and damage to the environment. The "Green GDP" initiative, launched by the Clinton administration in 1993, sought to remedy the failure of conventional economic statistics such as the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to account for depletion of natural resources and for serious damage to the environment and the potential health costs of pollution. A recent National Research Council report strongly encouraged Congress to continue funding the "Green GDP" initiative and called the development of natural resource and environmental accounts a "high priority" for the nation. (Conference Committee Report accompanying H.R. 3194)
  
  
• One rider, which was added to the Foreign Operations funding bill, burdens international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This rider requires the Agency for International Development to catalog and report all its expenditures for climate change activities, as well as all activities related to international participation in the Kyoto Protocol. Opponents of the Kyoto Protocol may use this information to attempt to intimidate and harass the agency if it tries to work with developing countries and the international community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (H.R. 3422, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113, Sec. 568)
  
  
• Rep. Knollenberg (R-MI) also added a rider that could limit preparation for climate protection to the Foreign Operations funding bill. It prohibits the Agency for International Development, and any other agencies that receive funds under H.R. 3422, from using federal funds "to propose or issue rules, regulations, degrees, or orders for the purpose of implementing, or in preparation for the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol." The rider ignores the United States’ existing commitments to reduce emissions under the 1992 Senate-ratified Rio Treaty. The Knollenberg rider is similar to the rider he included in the EPA’s FY 1999 spending bill. The rider may limit the federal government’s ability to address the international implications of climate change and help other countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, perpetuating higher emission levels of carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants. It appears to be an attempt to prevent the Administration from working with the international community on climate change issues. (Sec. 583 of H.R. 3422, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113)
  
  
• Funding for the U.S. activities of the United Nations Man and the Biosphere program or the U.N. World Heritage Fund is prohibited by a rider on the Foreign Operations bill. This rider hampers international cooperation on environmental issues. Particularly, it could weaken the authority of the United States and U.S. advocates in international environmental debates. This rider prevents federal foreign operation funds from being used to support the U.S. activities of two important international programs. The Man and the Biosphere (MAB) program was created in 1972 to provide a framework for international cooperation on environmental issues and fund interdisciplinary research on ecosystem sustainability, global change, and biological diversity. Its long-term goal is to contribute to a sustainable society. Biosphere Reserves, such as the Southern Appalachian Biosphere Reserve, are voluntarily designated for research on ecosystems and sustainable development. World Heritage Sites are internationally recognized for their significant cultural or natural resource values, such as Yosemite and Yellowstone National Parks and the Grand Canyon. Participation is voluntary and designation does not authorize the United Nations to make any land use management decisions with regard to these sites. (H.R. 3422, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113, Sec. 590)
  
  
• A particularly egregious rider attached by Senator Domenici (R-NM) to the final Interior bill allows grazing on public lands to continue without environmental review. Senator Domenici’s rider suspends current law to allow the Bureau of Land Management (and other Interior Department agencies) to indefinitely extend grazing permits that expire or are transferred in fiscal year 2000 without environmental review required under federal environmental statutes, such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Federal Land Policy Management Act and Endangered Species Act. The rider preserves the status quo for livestock grazing on the public lands regardless of resource damage that results. Specifically, the rider requires that expiring or transferred permits be reissued on their original terms regardless of the resource damage that has occurred from those terms. It prohibits any changes in existing practice unless and until the agency has complied completely with all applicable laws and regulations -- even when there is a resource emergency. The rider also prohibits Interior’s resource agencies from making interim changes to permit requirements, such as assuring compliance with the requirements of the Interior Department’s 1994 range reforms, and will prevent the public from being able to force these Interior agencies (through litigation) to take action. Ranchers will always be able to challenge the "completeness" of the process. This rider also applies to grazing permits issued by the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service; therefore when existing grazing leases in the Mojave National Preserve expire this fall (leases that were let without any NEPA review), the Park Service could renew them without any NEPA review even though grazing is harming park resources. (H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113, Sec. 123)
  
  
• Senator Reid (D-NV) authored a rider on the Interior funding bill to convey more than 2,500 acres of public lands near Las Vegas, Nevada to the City of Mesquite free of charge and provide that an additional 6,000 acres must be sold to the city for commercial or residential development. The rider exempts the land conveyance from applicable administrative procedure. Also, although there is a requirement to conduct an environmental review in the final rider, it is unclear what form this review would take and what the consequences would be if environmental concerns are identified. There are no restrictions on the uses of this land, and the City of Mesquite apparently is contemplating creating or expanding an airport corridor, even though no suitability assessment has been completed by the Federal Aviation Administration for the site. Development of this land could affect endangered fish species inhabiting the Virgin River, including the wondfin minnow, Virgin River Chub, Virgin River Spinedace, and the southwest willow flycatcher. (H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113, Sec.133)
  
  
• Senator Hatch (R-UT) included this rider in the Interior funding bill, which prohibits the Department of Interior from studying whether to drain Lake Powell in Utah. Glen Canyon, one of America's greatest natural treasures, was flooded in 1963 by the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam and the creation of Lake Powell. A number of environmental groups have called for the federal government to review the issue of whether to remove the Glen Canyon Dam, thus draining Lake Powell, to restore the free-flowing Colorado in the Grand Canyon. Even though the dam continues to cause environmental damage to fish and wildlife downstream on the Colorado River, federal land managers are now prevented from studying or implementing any plan to drain Lake Powell or reducing the water level in Lake Powell below the range required to operate Glen Canyon dam by this rider. The rider ties the hands of land managers, preventing full consideration of restoration options and prohibiting meaningful scientific review of the dam. (H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113, Sec.135)
  
  
• Inserted into the Interior bill on the Senate floor on behalf on Senator Murkowski (R-AK), this rider expands exemption for fur dealers to import furs without paying user fees, even on the furs of internationally protected species. This rider, expands fur dealers’ exemption from user fees to include species protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This provision: (1) increases the existing exemption from 100 to 1000 furs; (2) exempts shipments of furs of internationally threatened and endangered species (CITES-listed) such as lynx, river otter, bobcat, and black bear; and (3) expands the existing exemption to apply to any person or business (The current exemption is restricted to the person who took the animals from the wild or an immediate family member of that person). Although the rider was amended in conference to cap the number of furs that qualify for the exemption at 2,500 per person per year, it is a simple matter to structure fur shipments to avoid the cap. Additionally, this rider will reduce the amount of user fees paid to the federal government; a significant loss to its already under-funded wildlife inspection program (Sec. 136 of H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113)
  
  
• Another rider on the Interior bill, authored by Senate Appropriations Chairman Stevens (R-AK), promotes damaging, subsidized logging of old growth forests in the Tongass National Forest, the largest intact temperate rainforest on the planet. This rider provides $5 million to the Forest Service to promote logging of old growth rainforest in the Tongass National Forest. The rider will increase the "pipeline" of ready-to-sell timber, exploiting shortcomings in the Tongass management plan. The rider is intended to encourage private investment in large, new industrial timber facilities in Southeast Alaska that will heighten pressure to log Tongass wild lands, perpetuating the controversy over environmentally damaging and highly subsidized timber sales in the Tongass. (H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113, Title II)
  
  
• This rider, which has been attached to the Interior funding bill for several years, bars non-profit groups, researchers, and contractors that receive federal funds from disseminating information on current legislative proposals. The rider prohibits federal funds from being used for "any activity or the publication or distribution of literature that is designed to promote public support or opposition to any legislative proposal on which congressional action is not complete." The provision could apply to entities funded by the Interior Department and the Forest Service, but it has only been enforced against federal agencies. The rider should be amended to clarify that it applies only to federal agencies, not to their grantees. (H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113, Sec. 303)
  
  
• This rider, attached to the Interior appropriations bill, delays efforts to revise National Forest plans. This rider limits funding for revisions to many forest plans that already are under review for fiscal years 2000 and 2001 until the Forest Service adopts new planning regulations. This provision apparently is intended to pressure the Forest Service to implement new planning regulations without carefully incorporating science-based recommendations. Another forest planning rider (Sec. 322) halts funding for strategic planning under the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act. (H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113, Sec. 321 and Sec. 322)
  
  
• This rider, attached to the Interior funding bill, diverts public trail maintenance funds for logging. This rider provides a back-door loophole to fund more logging roads for salvage and commercial timber operations. The rider diverts funds from maintaining roads and trails to improving "forest health conditions." However, because logging is inexplicably considered a "forest health" activity by the Forest Service and because the rider does not restrict funding uses to noncommercial activities, these funds could be used for timber sales. Funds already exist for improving forest health, making this rider unnecessary and diverting sorely needed funds from road and trail maintenance programs is particularly damaging. (H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113, Sec. 327)
  
  
• Another rider on the Interior funding bill interferes with restoration of the Kankakee River in Indiana and Illinois. Ninety five percent (95%) of the Grand Kankakee Marsh, once one of the largest and most important freshwater wetland ecosystems in North America, providing essential habitat to a spectacular variety of waterfowl, wading birds and other wildlife, has been drained for agriculture and development. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to establish a national wildlife refuge in the Kankakee River watershed to restore and preserve 30,000 acres (less than 1 percent of the land within the river basin) of wetlands, oak savannas, and native tallgrass prairies. Despite overwhelming public support for the proposed wildlife refuge, this rider, as originally proposed, would have prohibited using federal funds to create the refuge. Although this rider was improved in conference, it remains a problem. As enacted, the rider prohibits funding for the national wildlife refuge until the Army Corps of Engineers completes a flooding study and requires that refuge restoration be consistent with the Corps’ recommendation regarding flooding. This makes the creation of the wildlife refuge dependent upon the Corps’ flood control analysis, an unnecessary impediment to the restoration process. It also sets a dangerous precedent by providing veto authority over the Interior Department’s decision to establish a national wildlife refuge to another agency, in this case the Corps. Moreover, the rider also requires congressional approval for any land acquisition. (H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113, Sec. 328)
  
  
• This rider, attached to the Interior spending bill, undermines consensus-based river management. The American Heritage Rivers Initiative (AHRI), a voluntary program that coordinates the efforts of federal, state and local agencies involved in managing some of the nation’s most important rivers, streamlines management of river resources and facilitates efficient allocation of funds; AHRI expressly avoids additional federal regulations or funding. As originally written, this rider would have crippled implementation of this Clinton administration initiative. As modified in conference, the rider allows federal agencies to participate in the AHRI, but prevents agency funds from being transferred to or used by the Council for Environmental Quality to manage this program or train personnel. This rider handicaps federal resource agencies, such as the Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, and the National Park Service from supporting the AHRI. Hindering productivity and interfering with the program at a time when citizens are working toward improving local and federal coordination is counterproductive. (H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113, Sec. 329)
  
  
• This bill, attached to the Senate Interior bill by Appropriations Chairman Stevens (R-AK) increases incentives to log old-growth red cedar from the Tongass National Forest. This rider will increase existing Tongass logging subsidies, already the highest in the country, by encouraging more unprofitable logging and creating pressure for a high cut level. Western red cedar is a scarce and valuable export, because it grows only in the southern Tongass. The remaining old-growth western red cedar provides important habitat for brown bears and wolves. This rider links the amount of Alaska’s western red cedar available for export to the annual sale volume of timber cut from the Tongass National Forest. The rider stipulates that interested manufacturers in the lower 48 states can have priority access to surplus western red cedar logged in fiscal year 2000 under certain conditions. (H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113, Sec. 333)
  
  
• This rider, attached to the Interior appropriations bill by Rep. Knollenberg (R-MI) limits preparation for climate protection. This rider prohibits the Department of Energy from using federal funds "to propose or issue rules, regulations, degrees, or orders for the purpose of implementing, or in preparation for the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol." This language, offered in full committee, is similar to Knollenberg’s language included in EPA’s FY 1999 spending bill. Ignoring the United States’ existing commitments to reduce emissions under the Senate-ratified Rio Treaty (1992), this rider may limit the federal government’s ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, perpetuating higher emission levels of carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants. It could undercut voluntary reduction programs and, in this context, would primarily affect the Department of Energy’s energy conservation programs that are funded in the Interior spending bill. (H.R. 3423, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Pub.L. 106-113, Sec. 336)