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This Statement of Administration Policy provides the Administration's views on
H.R. 2107, the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations
Bill,
FY 1998, as reported by the House Appropriations Committee. Your consideration
of the Administration's views would be appreciated.
The Committee has developed a bill that provides requested funding for many of
the Administration's priorities. However, as discussed below, the
Administration will seek restoration of certain of the Committee's reductions
to the President's requests. We recognize that it will not be possible in all
cases to attain the Administration's full request and will work with the House
toward achieving acceptable funding levels. The Administration is committed to
working with the House to identify reductions in the bill in order to find
offsets for the restoration of funds that the Administration seeks. For
example, unrequested funds have been provided to reimburse the Forest
Service's Knutson-Vandenberg Trust Fund (in excess of anticipated needs), and
the Committee has not rescinded Clean Coal Technology funds at the level
proposed in the FY 1998 Budget. We urge the House to reduce funding for lower
priority programs or for programs that would be adequately funded at the
requested level, and to redirect funding to programs of higher priority.
National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities
The Administration strongly objects to the Committee's drastic reduction in
funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The President's senior
advisers would recommend that he veto the bill if this funding level were to
remain. The proposed $10 million appropriation, $126 million below the
President's request, would make it impossible for the NEA to continue to
provide important cultural, educational, and artistic programs for communities
across America. The Administration strongly supports efforts in the House to
restore funding for the NEA.
The Administration strongly opposes the amendment made in order under the rule
that would terminate the NEA and create a block grant for the arts. The NEA
performs a critical Federal role in promoting the arts, which would be lost if
such an amendment were adopted. The President's senior advisers would
recommend that he veto the bill if it were to contain such an amendment.
In addition, we are concerned about the funding level proposed for the
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), which is $26 million below the
President's request.
Department of the Interior
Land Acquisition. The Administration strongly objects to the
Committee's failure to provide $700 million in FY 1998 budget authority from
the Land and Water Conservation Fund to finalize priority Federal land
acquisitions and exchanges as agreed to in the Bipartisan Budget Agreement
(BBA) and provided for in the budget resolution. Congress must include the
$700 million request in order to comply with the BBA, and the Administration
strongly supports efforts to approve this funding as the bill moves through the
process.
The budget agreement specifies that up to $315 million would be available from
the Land and Water Conservation Fund to finalize priority Federal land
exchanges. The Administration's top two priorities are protecting Yellowstone
National Park by acquiring private lands associated with the New World Mine
project and acquiring old-growth redwoods and adjacent lands in Headwaters
Forest. Completing these two priority purchases was the main impetus for
including additional land acquisition funds in the final agreement.
National Park Service (NPS): Everglades and Elwha River Restorations.
The Administration appreciates the Committee's efforts to provide the requested
funding for Everglades (FL) land acquisition, but objects to the level provided
for base NPS land acquisition ($18 million below the base funding assumed in
the BBA). We specifically object to the elimination of both non-Federal
acquisition funds for South Florida and advance appropriations, including
up-front construction funding for restoration of the Elwha River (WA) Ecosystem
and Fisheries. Acquisition of Elwha and Glines Canyon dams at Olympic National
Park is an essential first step in the restoration of the ecosystem authorized
by the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act of 1992. Up-front
funding for restoration activities is necessary to meet the 1992 Act's
requirement that the Secretary of the Interior determine that funds are
available for restoration before proceeding with acquisition of the dams. The
Administration urges the House to reallocate funding for this priority
restoration project within the amount requested by the Administration for base
Federal land acquisition, and allow land acquisition funds provided for South
Florida to include non-Federal acquisition of important water storage areas.
Native American Program Funding. The Administration commends the
Committee for funding essential, reservation-level Bureau of Indian Affairs
(BIA) Tribal Priority Allocation programs at the President's requested level,
the level included in the Bipartisan Budget Agreement. However, the
Administration is concerned about reductions below the request to other
programs critical to Indian country, such as school operations, construction of
a criminal justice facility, water rights negotiations, and environmental
cleanups, that could result in serious and costly liability problems. In
addition, the Administration is concerned that reductions to the Office of the
Special Trustee for American Indians could delay implementation of needed trust
fund management reform. The Administration urges the House to increase funding
to the extent possible for these important trust responsibilities.
Native American Program Riders. The Administration understands that
there may be an attempt to add a language provision to the bill that would
prohibit the Secretary of the Interior from taking land into trust for any
tribe that had not entered into a binding agreement with State and local
governments regarding the tribe's collection and payment of State and local
sales and excise taxes on retail purchases made on the land by non-tribal
members. Similar to a provision rejected by Congress last year, this would
undermine tribal sovereignty and the ongoing government-to-government
cooperation currently underway between a number of tribes and States that have
voluntarily negotiated, or are currently negotiating, joint taxation agreements
to accommodate the needs and rights of each party. The similar provision last
year was among the problems that led the Secretary of the Interior to recommend
a veto of the House-passed FY 1997 appropriations bill. The Administration
strongly opposes this provision and urges the House not to include it in the
bill.
The Administration also opposes section 316 of the bill, which would prohibit
the development and implementation of any interim or final rule regarding
jurisdictional issues pursuant to Title VIII of the Alaska National Interest
Land Conservation Act (ANILCA). This moratorium would, in effect, for a third
consecutive year override ANILCA without any congressional hearings, suspending
public review and comments on the rule. It would prevent the Departments of
the Interior and Agriculture from managing subsistence fishing programs on
behalf of Alaska Natives, as required by a 1995 decision by the 9th Circuit
Court of Appeals (the Katie John case). Ultimately, the Administration
supports the transfer of the subsistence program back to the State of Alaska.
Department of Health and Human Services
Indian Health Service. The Administration appreciates the Committee's
efforts to fund much of the President's requested $2,122 million for the
Indian Health Service (IHS). To the extent possible, we urge the House to
include an additional $36 million to restore IHS funding to the requested
level. This would provide the full amount requested for Contract Support
Costs, Contract Health Services, and funding for special health initiatives
such as child abuse prevention and women's health.
The Administration appreciates the Committee's action to provide funding for
beginning the construction of the health facility at Polacca, Arizona, for the
Hopi Tribe. However, the Administration is very concerned about the lack of
funding for the Fort Defiance hospital for the Navajo Tribe. Funding for the
replacement health care facility at Fort Defiance would provide a comprehensive
health program, including limited inpatient services for gynecological and
general ambulatory surgery, intensive care, and adolescent psychiatry. The new
hospital would replace the existing main hospital building, which was
constructed in 1938 and is functionally inadequate to meet the needs of the
current Navajo population. The Administration recommends, and urges the House
to support, a full-funding commitment for both facilities.
Department of Energy
Energy Conservation. The Administration objects to the Committee's
reductions to the request for energy conservation and to the Committee's
consolidation of utility-scale gas turbine development activities into the
Energy Conservation program. This transfer obscures the true size of the
Committee's reductions to the President's Energy Conservation budget. The
nominal reduction in this account is $71 million, but because the account
includes $31 million for gas turbine development previously funded in the
Fossil Energy Research and Development account, the true reduction to requested
energy conservation activities is $102 million. The reductions to Building
Technologies would hurt the Nation's international climate change commitments,
and the cuts in Transportation would damage the efforts of the Partnership for
a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) to move to the next phase of technology
development and systems integration. Within the transportation area, the
Committee has also included an increase of $10 million over the request for
heavy vehicle technologies. This add-on would disperse the program's scarce
resources away from the highest-priority activities and contradicts the
Committee's stated interest in making the programs more focused. These funds
should be redirected toward the requested PNGV activities. The DOE's Energy
Conservation program helps to create jobs, save money, and reduce pollution.
Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The Administration objects to the
Committee's proposed non-emergency sale of oil from the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve in FY 1998 in order to fund routine operations and maintenance at the
Reserve. The President's budget requests $209 million in new budget authority
to fund these activities. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the cornerstone
of the Nation's energy security. The Administration is conducting a study of
policy issues related to the Reserve, which will be completed this Fall. The
study will include analysis of the appropriate use of the Reserve in emergency
and non-emergency situations and will be used to guide Strategic Petroleum
Reserve policies in future years.
Clean Coal Technology. The Administration recommends that the House
rescind $136 million. (The FY 1998 Budget requested that $153 million be
rescinded, and the recently enacted P.L. 105-18 included a rescission of $17
million of that amount.) The Administration objects to the Committee's
decision not to advance appropriate $50 million in FY 1999 funds for a
demonstration project in China. This project would demonstrate a coal-based
technology that can greatly reduce CO2 and other pollutants, thereby limiting
the environmental impacts of industrialization in developing countries with
large coal reserves. The Administration requests that $136 million in
available balances be rescinded, and that $50 million be advance appropriated
for FY 1999 to fund the China project.
Department of Agriculture and Forest Service Micromanagement
The Administration objects to the micromanagement of Executive Branch
authorities that the Committee bill would impose upon the Forest Service and
the Office of the Secretary. The Administration believes that this inordinate
level of micromanagement is inappropriate and would impede the ability of the
Department to operate effectively. For example, the bill includes highly
objectionable language that would terminate the Secretary of Agriculture's
authority to have a Western Director and a special assistant in the West, who
facilitate the resolution of complex issues and provide important feedback to
the Secretary about concerns of Western States and citizens.
The Committee bill would further micromanage the Forest Service with specific
provisions prohibiting any reorganization, office closure, or other cost saving
proposals without prior approval of the Committees. The Administration will
interpret such provisions to require notification only, since any other
interpretation would contradict the Supreme Court ruling in INS vs. Chadha
. In addition, the Committee Report would require the Forest Service to
complete -- most by January 1998 -- over 15 different reports to the Congress.
Woodrow Wilson Center
The Administration strongly recommends restoring the $5.8 million requested in
the President's budget for the Woodrow Wilson Center. The Center was
established by Public Law 90-637 as the Nation's memorial to the twenty-eighth
President. The law created a Board of Trustees to maintain and administer the
Center, including the provision of facilities, staffing, and appointment of
scholars, and where appropriate, to provide stipends, grants, and fellowships
to such scholars, from the United States and aboard. The Administration and
the Congress have supported the Center since 1968.
Smithsonian Institution
The Administration strongly recommends that the House provide the full $58
million requested for construction of the Mall Museum of the National Museum of
the American Indian. The National Museum of the American Indian was created by
Public Law 101-185, which requires that two-thirds of the construction funds
for the Mall Museum shall come from Federal appropriations and one-third from a
national fund-raising campaign. As of January 1997, the national campaign had
received cash and pledges for the $36.7 million required to meet the
non-appropriated portion. The FY 1998 Budget requests $58 million for the
Federal share for the construction of the Mall Museum.
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