PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF SENATE AMENDMENT TO H.R. 2764, THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE, FOREIGN OPERATIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008 (CONSOLIDATED APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008) -- (House of Representatives - December 17, 2007)
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Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this rule and the omnibus appropriations bill.
For better or worse, it is the Appropriations Committee that is charged with the job of making the difficult choices that provide the best mix possible of funding levels for competing programs. The interior and environment portion of this bill is the product of the difficult choices that had to be made as a result of the President's insistence that we cut $22 billion from the levels approved by the House 6 months ago.
The final allocation for the Interior Subcommittee was $26.6 billion, essentially flat funding at the 2007 enacted level, because we were unable to achieve a compromise with the President that would have allowed for modest growth in the Interior and related agencies as well as the Environmental Protection Agency. I would remind my colleagues that since 2001, these same accounts have been reduced drastically. Interior has been cut by 16 percent, EPA by 29 percent, and the nonfirefighting accounts in the Forest Service by more than 35 percent.
In allocating these funds in this omnibus bill, our subcommittee, on a bipartisan basis, could have frozen funding for all programs at the Department of Interior, EPA, the Indian Health Service, and the Forest Service at the 2007 enacted levels. Alternatively, we could have approved deep reductions proposed by the President for the Forest Service, Indian health clinics, fire preparedness programs, clean air State grants, PILT payments or Land and Water Conservation Fund and Conservation Grants.
We did not choose either of these approaches. Instead, we chose to produce a conference version that was consistent with the priorities established in the House-passed Interior appropriations bill, reflecting the input from Members on both sides of the aisle and from 41 hearings held by our subcommittee this spring. The final version reflects the input of hundreds of individuals and organizations during these hearings.
The bill includes an increase of $123 million for the National Park Service operational accounts to fund an additional 1,500 FTE positions. This staff will help reinvigorate the Park Service for its centennial in 2016. An additional $24 million is included as interim funding for the new centennial matching grants program for 2008. This will get the program going while the authorizing committees complete negotiations to find a funding source for this new mandatory program. An increase of $39 million is provided for our national refuge system to begin refurbishing our refuges and replacing the 600 positions which have been lost since 2004.
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$145 million is provided for the National Endowment for the Arts, an increase of $20 million, to partially restore this program to the levels 12 years ago. The gentlewoman from New York has been my partner as we fought to restore this program to the levels of 12 years ago.
The bill includes an increase of $165 million for the Indian Health Service to cover medical inflation and ensure adequate medical care for Native Americans, one of this country's most disadvantaged populations.
An increase of $169 million over the 2007 level is provided for various firefighting programs, $81 million more than requested by the President. And $188 million is provided for climate change programs, including $43 million for the EPA and $32 million at the U.S. Geological Survey. Included for the USGS is $7.5 million to expand its climate research, of which $2.5 million is for a new global warming and wildlife center.
$20 million is provided for the EPA geographic program to ramp up the cleanup of Puget Sound, which is the Nation's second largest estuary and which has been in serious decline.
In this bill, we have also addressed the very serious environmental challenges that exist in the Chesapeake Bay, the Great Lakes, and other major bodies of water in the United States. These increases represent a significant redirection of funds to priorities which we believe serve the country's present and future needs and have not been adequately addressed by President Bush. But the President's requirement that our bill be reduced by $1 billion below the original House level has forced us to make very painful reductions. As I said at the beginning, these were tough choices.
Mr. Chairman, in concluding these remarks, I want to thank Mr. Tiahrt. And I would like to say to my colleagues on the Republican side, I have never seen a year in which Democrats and Republicans at the committee level, at the subcommittee level have worked better and have had better information on both sides of the aisle and have worked to adequately address earmarks to reduce the number of these earmarks very dramatically. So I would say that there has not been a lack of cooperation. There has been outstanding cooperation on the entire subcommittee.
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