Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agendcies Appropriations Act, 2007
AGRICULTURE, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, AND RELATED AGENÐCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007 -- (House of Representatives - May 23, 2006)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Chairman, it is a very simple amendment, but I think it is very important and one that an awful lot of groups are paying attention to.
There is a program we have had in the farm bill for a very long time, the Wetland Reserve Program, that has become extremely important on a variety of fronts. It is important to wildlife, it is important to our water quality, it is important to flood control, and I think it is important to most Americans who care about the environment.
It is especially important to those of us in Minnesota. We have 10,000 lakes. We take water very seriously. And the Wetland Reserve Program is something that we want to do everything we can to preserve and keep at its current levels.
Currently, we authorize in the farm bill about 250,000 acres for the Wetland Reserve Program. And I understand how difficult it has been for the subcommittee and the chairman and the staff to squeeze all of the requests into the amount of money that they have been allocated in this appropriation bill, so I have a great deal of empathy for the problems that they have. But I wanted to come to the floor today to offer an amendment to restore to 250,000 acres the overall authorization for the Wetland Reserve Program.
Currently, under this bill that authorization drops to about 144,000 acres. I understand that the committee had to find $82 million. And by passing this amendment we create an $82 million hole in their bill, and I am empathetic to that. So what we have done, working with the Department, we take $65 million from the ARS Facilities area and $16.5 million from the CSREES Research and Education Activities fund.
No one likes to take money from those funds, but as we looked at all the potentials for offsets, those were the best we could find. So, Members, I think this is an important amendment. I think it is one that will be watched by the Ducks Unlimited, the Pheasants Forever, lots of the wildlife groups and sportsmen groups, and it is important as well to the folks who are really concerned about preserving our wetlands and improving our environment.
So this is a very important amendment, and I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting the Gutknecht amendment.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Chairman, I would be more than happy to work with the chairman on this. We worked with the professionals who draft these amendments. We told them what we wanted. We were willing to find offsets. We worked with the Department for those offsets. We understand those offsets do cause some heartburn for the Department, but it is my understanding they can work with those offsets.
I would appreciate it if we could at least adopt this amendment, and we will work with you through the conference committee process to perfect that language, if that is necessary. I hope that this body wants to send a clear message that the Wetlands Reserve Program is a high-priority program. And I would work with you on that, but I would like to have this amendment adopted, even if it is not perfect in your eyes.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
http://thomas.loc.gov/