For Immediate Release

July 26, 2007

SALMON RECOVERY, ANTI-METH PROGRAM
FUNDED IN HOUSE APPROPRIATIONS BILL

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House of Representatives today approved another increment of funding for the West Coast Salmon Recovery program, helping restore threatened and endangered salmon runs in Washington, Oregon and California as well as Alaska and Idaho, Rep. Norm Dicks said.       

            A total of $64.8 million for the program was approved by the House as part of the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations bill for the next fiscal year, beginning Oct.1, 2007, said Rep. Dicks, who serves as a member of the House Appropriations Committee.  Of that amount, the congressman noted that Washington would likely receive up to $25 million for conservation initiatives in the state in areas where salmon runs have declined. 

            The program was launched in 1999 by Rep. Dicks and then-Vice-President Al Gore, who secured the commitment of the National Marine Fisheries Service to the coastal recovery effort following the listing of several threatened western U.S. salmon species under the Endangered Species Act.   Since then, fishery habitat restoration along thousands of miles of western streams and rivers has been accomplished, including the removal of culverts and other structures that have blocked fish passage and destroyed many once-plentiful runs, Rep. Dicks noted.

            In the same appropriations bill, $500,000 was included to sustain the Washington State Methamphetamine Initiative, a partnership between treatment, prevention and law enforcement agencies targeting the state’s very serious methamphetamine consumption, distribution and manufacturing problem.  The effort has been successful in recent years in seizing large quantities of meth and dismantling illicit drug labs, but Rep. Dicks said the problem is still growing and further assistance is needed.

            In addition, the appropriations bill passed today funds two other law enforcement programs in Pierce County:

Pierce County Automated Finger Imaging System Upgrade
$1 million was allocated at Rep. Dicks’ request for this joint effort of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office and the Tacoma Police Department.  These agencies have been sharing an Automated Finger Imaging System (AFIS) for nearly 20 years and this assistance will assist in the upgrade and integration of the City of Tacoma’s finger imaging system into the state's system.

Rainier Communications Commission Wireless Broadband Network:
$250,000 was included for the acquisition and installation of wireless routers in sheriff’s department squad cars and other emergency vehicles to allow for testing of a pilot wireless broadband network designed by the Rainier Communications Commission the intergovernmental authority comprised of Pierce County and 14 surrounding municipalities that will share in the operation of the network.

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