Clinton urged to veto rider-laden aid bill

A rider attached to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill would open Glacier Bay National Park to commercial fishing

May 7, 1999
Web posted at: 12:10 PM EDT

A funding bill for humanitarian relief efforts and U.S. military aid in Kosovo is plagued with anti-environmental riders, according to conservationists who have asked President Clinton to veto any legislation that contains the riders.

Congress is expected to vote within the next few weeks on the Fiscal Year 1999 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill. The bill would aid military personnel in Kosovo and provide food and shelter to storm victims in Central America.

"Providing essential financial assistance to victims of natural disaster and U.S. military personnel in Kosovo is crucial and deserves to be addressed quickly, fully and without requiring offsets that could force unacceptable reductions in important programs," The Wilderness Society and the National Parks and Conservation Association said in a statement.

The environmental groups have asked Clinton to uphold a promise he made at the Department of Interior's 150th Anniversary to veto legislation containing anti-environmental riders.

"Let us not waste precious time battling over these bad anti-environmental riders, which I am going to veto anyway; instead, let's go on with the work of America," said Clinton at the Interior anniversary.

According to the environmental organizations, the appropriations bill contains the following anti-environmental riders:

• Glacier Bay National Park: This provision overturns a moratorium on a compromise reached last fall between Congress and the Clinton administration that phases out commercial fishing in Alaska's Glacier Bay National Park. If adopted, the rider would open Glacier Bay National Park to commercial fishing, including waters designated as wilderness by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, without any federal safeguards or regulation.
  
• Oil Royalties: The oil royalty language currently in the bill will delay the implementation of an oil valuation rule by the Minerals Management Service to make the largest oil companies pay their fair share of royalties for the oil they extract from public lands until October 1999. A portion of the revenue funds environmental programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund and state public education programs.
  
• Hardrock Mining: This provision prevents the Bureau of Land Management from issuing final hardrock mining regulations until four months after the issuance of a National Academy of Sciences study, which will not be complete until July 31, 1999. This delay will sideline new regulations for over a year. Final regulations are critical to stop irresponsible mining, to allow BLM to consider other values besides mining when considering approval of mine permits, and to prevent mining companies from abandoning their depleted mines and leaving taxpayers with the cleanup bill.

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