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Moderate Republicans join Dems on environmental protectionsIncreased logging in national forests at issue
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A group of moderate House Republicans joined Democrats Tuesday in an effort to block western Senate Republicans from loading a massive spending bill with measures the moderates say would weaken environmental protections. "It would seriously undermine the legislative process to add new provisions behind closed doors and at the very last minute to a must-pass spending bill that is already four months late," the eight GOP lawmakers said in a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Florida. The Senate Republicans, led by their appropriations committee chairman, Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, succeeded Monday night in protecting provisions that would open more areas in Alaska and national forests throughout the West to new logging. The letter, signed by eight House Republicans, was circulated Tuesday as lawmakers continued to work through a massive, $396 billion spending package financing nearly every federal agency for the rest of the year. Stevens also is pushing for language in the bill to provide money for "pre-drilling" in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve despite a two-decade-old ban on oil exploration there. Opening ANWR to drilling for oil and natural gas is the centerpiece of President Bush's energy policy. The Senate voted against the idea last year and Democrats have vowed to use delaying filibuster tactics to block in vote on it this year. Democrats also lost a measure to add $200 million for land conservation programs in the Interior Department to bring their funding up to the same level as last year. "We in essence have now said conservation programs are our last priority," Rep. David Obey, D-Wisconsin, said afterward. Senate Republicans are trying to include in the bill several other measures opposed by environmentalists. Sens. Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, both Mississippi Republicans, are pushing for the inclusion of $15 million to start construction on the world's largest hydraulic pumping plant to decrease flooding in the Mississippi Delta. Critics say it would destroy 200,000 acres of swamps and marshes. So far, Senate Republicans have prevailed on expanding the U.S. Forest Service's ability to enter agreements with lumber companies to thin more of the 191 million acres of national forests without challenges by environmentalists. "There is just an horrendous amount of damage to the environment included in this bill," said Debbie Sease, the Sierra Club's Washington, D.C.-based legislative director. "This is sort of back to the bad old days." In Alaska alone, Stevens wants the bill to open up 9 million acres of Tongass National Forest and the 5.3-million-acre Chugach National Forest to road-building and logging, which would lift protections on about a quarter of 58.5 million acres put off-limits by the Clinton administration. "They see this as the best chance to get something like this done," said Tim Bristol, who heads the Alaska Coalition, an environmental group in Juneau. "It's secretive because it's tucked away in a giant spending bill. And just about any of them, if they were subject to open debate, would fail." Stevens' office said he would have no comment on the environmental riders until the bill is ready for a Senate vote, which could come by the end of the week. The letter was signed by House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert of New York, Reps. Mike Castle of Delaware, Christopher Shays of Connecticut, Jim Leach of Iowa, Nancy Johnson of Connecticut, Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland, Chris Smith of New Jersey and Sue Kelly of New York. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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