CAPITOL FLYER

On December 8, 2004, President Bush signed into law the Interior Department FY2005 Appropriations bill as part of an omnibus appropriations bill that included funding for a number of different non-defense agencies. The bill funds the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for fiscal year (FY) 2005. Below are details of the final Interior funding bill:

(All numbers are subject to a 0.83% rescission applied to all non-defense/non-homeland security appropriations and an additional 0.594% rescission for all Interior funding.)

Refuge Operations and Maintenance:

• Conference Report: $390,427,000
• Conference Report with Rescissions: $384,782,000
• Conference Report with Rescissions and Cost Allocation Methodology (CAM)

Construction: Total $53.4 million
($s in millions)

• 0.8    Arapaho NWR, CO; Muskrat Dam
• 0.3    Bayou Sauvage NWR, LA; Visitor Center
• 0.3    Chase Lake & Arrowwood NWRs, ND; Joint Inter. Center
• 0.750 Clark's River NWR, KY; Maint. Facility
• 3.177 Eastern MA NWR complex, MA; Visitor Center & Admin
• 0.115 Fish Springs NWR, UT; seismic rehab
• 0.750 Hanford Reach NM, WA; Visitor Center
• 2.1    Kenai NWR, AK; Visitor Center (water & sewer)
• 1.0    Klamath Basin NWR, CA; water supply phase V
• 4.2    Lacreek NWR, SD; Little White River Dam Phase III
• 2.7    Midway Atoll NWR; Electrical System
• 0.5    Midway Atoll NWR; Replace wastewater treatment system
• 0.835 Ohio River Islands NWR, WV; HQ/Visitor Contact Station improvements
• 0.6    Okefenokee NWR, GA; Env. Ed Facility
• 4.0    Visitor Facility Enhancements (though stated as Service-wide, this is for NWRS)
• 3.0    Sevilleta NWR, NM; Laboratory Construction
• 2.0    Silvio Conte NWR, VT, Nulhegan Visitor Contact Station
• 0.3    Togiak NWR, AK; Visitor Center
• 0.7    Tualatin NWR, OR; Visitor Center & Admin

Land Acquisition: Total $37.526 million
($s in millions)

• 0.711 Archie Carr NWR, FL
• 3.400 Baca NWR, CO
• 0.4    Back Bay NWR, VA
• 0.9    Balcones Canyonlands NWR, TX
• 0.625 Black Bayou Lake NWR, LA
• 0.7    Cache River NWR, AR
• 0.55  Cahaba NWR, AL
• 0.85  Cape Romain NWR, SC
• 0.75  Chickasaw NWR, TN
• 0.65  Dakota Tallgrass Prairie WMA, SD/ND
• 0.5    Eastern Shore NWR, VA
• 0.5    Great Swamp NWR, NJ
• 0.75  Great White Heron NWR, FL
• 2.0    James Campbell NWR, HI
• 1.5    Lake Umbagog NWR, NH
• 0.75  Lower Hatchie NWR, TN
• 1.0    Lower Rio Grande Valley NWR, TX
• 0.575 Massasoit NWR, MA
• 1.3    Middle MS River NWR, MO
• 0.5    Northern Tallgrass Prairie, MN/IA
• 0.6    Palmyra Atoll NWR
• 0.25  Patoka River NWR, IN
• 0.5    Rachel Carson NWR, ME
• 0.5    Rhode Island refuge complex, RI
• 1.0    San Diego NWR, CA
• 1.0    Silvio O. Conte NWR, NH/VT/CT
• 2.0    Tensas NWR, LA
• 1.5    Togiak NWR, AK
• 0.4    Upper MS River, MN/WI/IA/IL
• 1.25  Waccamaw NWR, SC
• 0.7    Wallkill NWR, NJ
• 1.0    Yukon River Delta, AK

The total Refuge System Operations and Maintenance (O&M) budget is listed as $390,427,000 in the bill signed by the President December 8. This is $1,066,000 less than the FY2004 level of $391,493,000. However, after the across-the-board rescission of 0.8%, Interior-specific rescission of 0.594% and the CAM reprogramming, the total Refuge System O&M budget is $381,537,000. This is $9,956,000, or 2.5%, less than last year's funding level.

While a $10 million cut in funding for the Refuge System will have severe implications for refuges, a number of funding reallocations by the House reflect the priorities of the NWRA and Friends groups. For example, $7 million was cut from CCI funding and reallocated to base refuge funding, including $2 million for Visitor Services and Facility Enhancements.

In addition, $1 million was allocated for competitive projects with Friends groups on invasive species control. This funding was a direct result of efforts by the Association and Friends groups and will support expansion of the Volunteer Invasives Monitoring Project (VIMP) and requests for specific invasive species-related projects at individual refuges. While this funding reflects a cut from the $2 million originally included in the House Interior appropriations bill, it does provide important funding needed to continue to advance and grow the VIMP and provide for a healthy competitive grants program for invasive species projects with Friends groups and volunteers.

Included in the omnibus appropriations bill signed by President Bush is language by Rep. Ralph Regula (R-OH) authorizing a federal recreational fee program for 10 years.

The new fee program replaces the Recreational Fee Demonstration program and includes five agencies: the Forest Service; National Park Service; Fish and Wildlife Service; Bureau of Reclamation; and Bureau of Land Management. It requires retention of at least 80% of collected fees at local sites.

The new fee program is similar to the existing fee demonstration program, but adds some restrictions requested by House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-CA) that dictate where revenues from the program can be spent. For example, program funds must be used in ways directly related to visitor enjoyment, access and safety and the operations of the fee program; they cannot be used for other programs, such as endangered species work.

The NWRA asked Congress to extend the Recreational Fee Demonstration program in the Association's Congressional testimony for FY2005 appropriations and most Friends groups have been very supportive of fee programs at refuges.

White House

With President George W. Bush's comfortable win in the general election, members of his cabinet, such as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Mike Leavitt, are declaring an environmental mandate for the Administration. One of the Bush Administration's top priorities for the second term is the so-called "Clear Skies" initiative, which would reform the Clean Air Act. A major issue facing the Administration is global climate change. Bush has consistently resisted efforts to implement regulatory and legislative actions to deal with greenhouse gas emissions, widely believed to contribute to climate change.

Bush's reelection victory means his energy agenda of utilizing traditional fuels like coal, gas and oil, and researching hydrogen fuel will move forward. At the top of his energy plan is opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to energy exploration. Bolstered by a Congress that has increased its Republican majority, President Bush will push hard to open Arctic NWR during the 109th Congress.

For the Refuge System, the Administration will continue to promote its Cooperative Conservation Initiative (CCI), which provides grants and funding for cooperative projects with private land owners and others who partner with the FWS for conservation projects on private land.

Senate

Before the 2004 elections, the Senate was made up of 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats and 1 Independent (who caucuses with the Democrats). By capturing the seats of five retiring Southern Democrats, Republicans made big gains in the Senate. The new make up of the Senate in the 109th Congress will be 55 Republicans, 44 Democrats and 1 Independent.

The most notable Senate race was in South Dakota, where Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D) lost his reelection bid to former Rep. John Thune (R). Daschle's defeat leaves Senate Democrats without the person who has led them for the last decade, and removes a key player from the energy policy debate. Daschle was an ardent supporter of ethanol fuels. Former Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid (D-NV) was recently elected Senate Democrats to take over Daschle's leadership role in the new Congress.

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), chairman of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, plans to make the Bush Administration's "Clear Skies" initiative the Committee's number one environmental issue. First, however, the Committee expects to reconstruct a bipartisan agreement on a surface transportation reauthorization bill. The highway bill currently in the 108th Congress has been stalled by disagreements about funding levels between the Congress and White House and includes funding for refuge roads. During the past year, the National Wildlife Refuge Association pushed for significant increases in refuge roads funding. Under the current transportation law, $20 million is allocated to refuge roads; the NWRA and FWS would like to see refuge roads funding increased to $70 million in a new transportation bill next year to adequately address Refuge System needs.

House

On the other side of the Capitol, the U.S. House of Representatives saw similar gains for Republicans, thanks in part to redistricting efforts in Texas that favored the GOP. Before the elections, the House consisted of 227 Republicans, 205 Democrats, 1 Independent and 2 vacancies. In the 109th Congress the House of Representatives will be made up of 231 Republicans, 201 Democrats and 1 Independent. There are two open seats that will be decided in election runoffs on December 4 in House races for Louisiana's Third and Seventh Congressional Districts.

Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) will remain chairman of the House Resources Committee in the 109th Congress. Chairman Pombo, along with a number of Congressional Republicans, plans to make changing the 31-year-old Endangered Species Act (ESA) a top priority next year. Some ESA revisions being pushed involve raising the hurdles scientists must clear to ensure a government determination that a species is endangered and cutting back the amount of critical habitat required.

Pombo and the House Resources Committee will also put a high priority on a new energy bill, with provisions to open up the Arctic NWR to energy exploration.

J. Steven Griles, Deputy Secretary for the Department of the Interior, resigned yesterday and said he would return to the private sector. Griles, a former timber and energy lobbyist, was the Interior Department's No. 2 official, serving under Secretary Gale Norton.

An advocate for drilling and logging on public lands, Griles won praise from industry, but scorn from environmental groups, who say he blocked wilderness protections and promoted energy interests since coming to Interior in July 2001. His resignation will be effective January 31, 2005, unless a replacement is confirmed sooner.

As mentioned above, the battle over whether to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's 1.5 million-acre coastal plain to energy development is expected to surface again in the 109th Congress. A provision opening the Arctic to drilling would most likely emerge as part of a budget resolution that cannot be filibustered in the Senate.

The increased number of Republicans in Congress could give advocates of drilling in the Arctic Refuge a decisive edge next year, but approval is far from assured. Republicans still do not have the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. However, drilling advocates could attach language opening the Arctic Refuge to the budget reconciliation measure next year. This procedure requires only a simple majority (51 votes) for passage. Last year, efforts to allow drilling in the Refuge narrowly lost 52-48 on a vote for an amendment to strip drilling language from the budget.

As reported in previous issues of the Capitol Flyer, the FWS has been negotiating with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation (CSKT) for an annual funding agreement (AFA) at the National Bison Range in Montana. Under the agreement, the FWS would transfer approximately half of the refuge staff positions and budget to the tribes, resulting in added costs to the refuge and making effective management by the FWS difficult.

Currently, the FWS, Interior officials and the CSKT are negotiating possible changes to the agreement based on comments received during the public comment period that ended November 5. The NWRA believes a signed agreement will be sent to Congress within the next two weeks. Unless Congress takes action within 90 days of receiving the agreement, the AFA would take effect.

The NWRA is strongly urging Congress to reject the Bison Range agreement if is not significantly modified from its current form. The NWRA believes any AFA proposed for a refuge must demonstrate a benefit to the refuge, including cost-savings and effective management of wildlife.