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THE DAMAGE DONE -- A REVIEW OF ENACTED LEGISLATION

Bill to grant the consent of the Congress to the Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact -- Public Law No. 105-236. Sponsored by Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), this bill would create a facility at Sierra Blanca along the Texas-Mexico border where Texas, Maine, and Vermont would be allowed to dump low-level nuclear waste. This bill violates a 1983 U.S.-Mexican agreement to assure environmental quality along their border. Also it raises serious environmental concerns and the issue of environmental justice. The companion bill in the Senate was introduced by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME). Signed by the President September 20, 1998.

RIDERS ENACTED IN THE 105TH CONGRESS

FY 1998 Interior Appropriations -- Public Law No. 105-83

• Undermining National Forest Planning. This provision compels the Forest Service to issue poorly conceived regulations and delay needed plan revisions, resulting in added problems for public resources, the Forest Service, and the public.
  
  
• Weakening Protection for Arizona and New Mexico Forests. This measure postpones court-ordered management reforms and allow poorly managed logging and grazing to damage federal streams, water resources, and wildlife of the Arizona and New Mexico National Forests.

FY 1998 Supplemental Appropriations

• Promoting Subsidized Logging. One rider encourages more subsidized logging in roadless areas of National Forests. This provision directs the Forest Service to develop substitute timber sales and to make payments to countries at levels consistent with sales that would have gone forward, absent the current moratorium. This rider creates direct financial liability for the Forest Service by requiring the agency to make payments to countries out of its general operating funds.
  
  
• Highway Through Petroglyph National Monument. This rider deletes land from the Petroglyph National Monument in Albuquerque, New Mexico to allow construction of a six-lane commuter highway across the park. The Petroglyph road is opposed by the Native American communities, for whom the monument is sacred.
  
  
• Subsidizing Oil Companies. Another provision bars the Department of Interior rule to require oil companies to pay fair market value for oil owned by American taxpayers, extracted on public lands.

FY 99 VA-HUD and Independent Agencies Appropriations

• Limiting Preparation for Climate Protection. The final version of the EPA spending bill, H.R. 4194, prohibits use of 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." Language in the committee report accompanying the bill preventing EPA from educating the public about global warming was eliminated by passage of an amendment on the House floor offered by Rep. Obey (D-WI).

Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) -- Public Law 105-178

• Blocking Cleaner Air in National Parks. This rider would require a nine-year delay in creating a new critical clean air program to protect air quality in National Parks,
  
  
• Putting Motorized vehicles in Pristine Wilderness Areas. The rider promotes use of motorized vehicles in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area

Omnibus Spending Package -- H.R. 4328

• Removing Coastal Barrier Areas from Protection. This rider would remove several Florida land parcels from the Coastal Barrier system, despite the recent decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that implementation of the deletions is invalid. This rider is similar to threats attempted by the 104th Congress in the Omnibus Parks bill. The 1982 Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CARA) established the Coastal Barrier Resources System consisting of undeveloped coastal barriers, such as barrier islands, spits, and associated aquatic habitat. This rider would remove land units from CARA and make areas eligible for federal development subsidies including federal flood insurance for new, private construction, despite their hazard-prone and fragile nature. This decision would be fiscally unsound and come at the expense of the American taxpayer. Many of the coastal barriers are nesting areas for loggerhead and green sea turtles and harbor many other threatened and endangered species like the piping plover and other shorebirds.
  
  
• Freeze Existing CAFE Standards. Rep. Wolf (R-VA) included an amendment that would ban the Department of Transportation from updating Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) standards. These standards, aimed at reducing both fuel consumption and pollution, have not been updated since 1985. Current standards do not reflect available technology nor the types of personal vehicles on the road. For example, the current 27.5 mpg standard for passenger vehicles does not apply to sport utility vehicles despite their increasing passenger use.
  
  
• Delay in Phase-out of Methyl Bromide. This provision would push back the U.S. deadline for phasing out of this deadly and ozone-depleting pesticide from 2001 to 2005. Methyl bromide destroys stratospheric ozone fifty times more aggressively than chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which have already been banned because of their destructive impact on ozone in the upper atmosphere. By delaying the phase out, thousands more people will be at risk for developing skin cancer, the fastest growing form of cancer according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This rider was included in neither the House or Senate bill, but added in conference.
  
  
• Waiver of Environmental Review for Grazing Permits. This rider would allow the Bureau of Land Management to extend grazing permits for specific areas or "allotments" on the public's lands without complying with requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, the Federal Land Policy and Management Act and the Endangered Species Act. These requirements are not new: the BLM's obligation to comply with NEPA in administering grazing, for example, was established more than two decades ago. Where the required analyses have been prepared, they have revealed authorized grazing management practices were causing extensive damage to fish and wildlife habitats, vegetation, soils and other publicly-owned resources. Waiver of NEPA and other legal requirements will mean that ongoing, otherwise avoidable livestock damage will continue to occur on hundreds of thousands of acres along with further delay in, and increased costs, for rehabilitating resource degradation.
  
  
• Waiver for Environmental Review of Highway Projects. Rep. Ron Packard (R-CA) included an amendment that would expedite construction of a toll road through park land in Southern California. This rider sets a dangerous precedent by hindering the EPA’s efforts to assess and mitigate environmental impact as required by the National Environmental Policy Act. This project has been deemed unnecessary by both the EPA and an independent group of traffic engineers due to an absence of substantial traffic congestion and numerous data deficiencies. Furthermore, the new toll road would be built through a state park, containing a fragile wetland coastal habitat, pristine wildlife, and home to at least six federally listed species. This language got worse. New exemptions were added for projects in New York and Alabama. The Administration reportedly got language included that describes these as unique circumstances which should not serve as precedent for future waivers.
  
  
• Delay of Pending BLM Mining Regulations. A rider in the Senate bill would halt the review of the current hardrock mining regulations (43 CFR 3809) until the completion of an 18-month National Academy of Sciences study on the effects of the new regulations initiated by Secretary Babbitt in Jan. 1997. The Bureau of Land Management is currently required to conduct an environmental impact study on the consequences of "3809" reform. This provision would delay the implementation of long-overdue mining reform. The language was changed to limit the delay to 1 year.
  
  
• Moratorium on Oil Royalties Valuation Rule. This rider would further delay the long awaited Oil Valuation Rule from going into effect, thus allowing oil and gas industries to dodge at least another $86 million in oil royalties until October 1999. The Oil Valuation Rule, which has been subject to more than two years of comments and discussion was scheduled to go into effect this summer. This rider also offers an incentive for the Minerals Management Service to weaken their rules because it allows the moratorium on rule making to be shortened in the case that "there is a negotiated agreement on the rule." The language was changed to limit the delay to 8 months.
  
  
• Sierra Nevada Logging Bill. This provision would more than double logging in one-third of California's Sierra Nevada forests, threatening the integrity of one hundred and 60 thousand acres of ancient forest ecosystems. Developed by a small group of local residents , and opposed by 140 state local and national environmental organizations, this measure is a sweetheart deal for California’s largest logging company.
  
  
• Still More Regulatory Reform. The "regulatory accounting" rider in the bill adds to the regime of bureaucratic hurdles that must now be surmounted by agencies charged with safeguarding the nation's health, safety and environment. Under this measure, agencies will, once again, be required to undertake exhaustive economic analyses of the aggregate costs, benefits, and impacts on businesses of their actions. Only two years ago, the 104th Congress imposed some 20 new bureaucratic and analytical requirements on agencies charged with environmental protection, including numerous other requirements for economic and cost/ benefit analyses. OMB is directed to develop guidelines for the new analytical hurdles through a peer review process that is expressly excluded from "government in sunshine" laws.
  
  
• Impairing Recovery of Threatened Salmon. The provision withholds funding for the removal of dams on the Elwa River in Washington, a vitally important step toward the restoration of threatened and endangered species of salmon.
  
  
• Impede Alaska Parkland Acquisition in Alaska. The rider would prohibit the Secretary of Interior from expending any funds for land acquisition in Alaska unless the Secretary first seeks to exchange unreserved public lands for the parcel desired. This language would impede the federal government's ability to acquire inholdings from willing sellers in an expeditious manner, thus jeopardizing rare opportunities to obtain key private land parcels in such places as Denali National Park and Lake Clark National Park.
  
  
• Special Privileges for Katmai Concessionaire. This provision would manipulate a provision in the 1980 Alaska Lands Act to allow the current concessionaire in Katmai National Park and Preserve to remain in that role for as long as they want, free from outside competition. The language sets a terrible precedent for other concessionaires that might seek special privileges under the Alaska Lands Act, and cheats the American taxpayer and national park visitors from obtaining the best services at the best price.
  
  
• Delay National Forest Planning. This provision would impose a funding limitation to halt the revision of any forest plans not already undergoing revision until final or interim final 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 now being developed by an independent Committee of Scientists. Another section of the bill would halts funding to carry out strategic planning under the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act (RPA). A third section of the bill would exempts existing forest plans from current revision deadlines outlined under the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) and the Forests and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act.
  
  
• Prevent Grizzly Bear Reintroduction. This provision prohibits the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from expending money to reintroduce grizzly bears into the Selway-Bitterroot ecosystem in Idaho and Montana. The Service is planning to begin reintroduction next summer. This program is intended 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. In addition, the Service would be prohibited from expending funds to complete Section 7 consultations as required by the Endangered Species Act, on federal activities affecting bears in the same area.