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July 8, 2007

Stevens helps secure funding for salmon

By R.A. Dillon

Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner

WASHINGTON — The mighty earmark may have lost much of its appeal with Democrats in control of Congress, but Alaska’s Sen. Ted Stevens last week showed he still has the Midas touch during the Appropriations Committee’s approval of two major spending bills.

The Senate panel passed a $7.4 billion spending plan for the Commerce Department that includes $90 million for the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund. That’s up from the $66 million provided in the current fiscal year to the National Marine Fisheries Service for salmon protection and conservation efforts.

The bill contains few congressional earmarks, though, leaving it up to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the program, to decide where best to spend the money.

The absence of earmarks has been a problem for the state this year, when it requested $22 million for its Southeast Sustainable Salmon Fund from NOAA but was told to reapply for just $16.5 million. The state is still waiting for that money, said Sue Aspelund, special assistant to the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Without earmarks to direct the funding to specific programs, NOAA has started requiring all requests go through a competitive bidding process, which has slowed awards significantly, Aspelund said.

The practice has irked Stevens, who added language in the Senate bill taking NOAA to task for rejecting Alaska’s 2007 funding request.

“The committee is disappointed NOAA rejected the state of Alaska’s fiscal year 2007 proposals for salmon enhancement projects,” the bill states. Adding that, “without these projects, the salmon population in Alaska runs the risk of depletion.”

Aspelund said the state will ask for $22 million again this year, but it likely won’t know how much it will receive until a final budget is approved in the fall.

Previous allocations under the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund have gone to the Fairbanks hatchery and the Yukon River drainage. The federal funds are distributed across the state through the Southeast Sustainable Salmon Fund, which was established in 2000.

The bill provides NOAA with a total of $4.2 billion for fiscal year 2008, including $927 million for the National Weather Service, $636 million for the National Ocean Service and $765 million for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The spending bill must now be approved by the full Senate before it can be matched with the House version.

The Senate committee also approved a number of grants for the Alaska Department of Public Safety under the Justice Department spending bill. The spending plan includes $4 million to combat sexual assault, $1.3 million to the Alaska Native Justice Center, $1 million for rural law enforcement, $800,000 to combat bootlegging in the villages and $250,000 for officer training in the Village Public Safety Officer program.

The state would also receive $2 million to fight methamphetamine use under the plan. Big Brothers Big Sisters would also receive $1.2 million for statewide programs.

The $28 billion spending bill for the Interior Department includes $400,000 for Doyon Ltd.’s plan to swap land around five Interior villages for about 200,000 acres in the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The trade would consolidate the Alaska Native regional corporation’s holdings around the refuge’s southcentral uplands, where it hopes to drill for oil and natural gas. The villages in the area have raised concerns about the potential for development, worried it could affect subsistence activities.

The Interior spending plan also includes a large chunk of money — $30 million — for rural drinking and waste water infrastructure. That’s down slightly from fiscal year 2007, which provided rural villages with $34.5 million.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., succeeded in slipping into the Interior spending bill a ban on importing polar bear trophies, such as hides and mounted heads. The ban would block hunters from importing polar bear trophies from Canada. Alaska Rep. Don Young was able to fend off a similar measure in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The issue will be decided when the two versions of the bill are reconciled in conference committee later this year, although the Senate is not expected to muster enough support to keep the measure alive.

The Senate returns to work Monday and is scheduled to take up the fiscal year 2008 Defense Authorization bill. House members return Tuesday.

R.A. Dillon is a former Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reporter who now covers national energy policy in Washington, D.C.

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