October 29, 2009

PUGET SOUND FUNDING IN FINAL INTERIOR BILL;
MEASURE TO BE SIGNED BY PRESIDENT THIS WEEK

The House of Representatives gave final approval today to the compromise version of the Interior spending bill for Fiscal Year 2010, including a substantial boost in the operations of the National Parks and a major increase in funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s cleanup and restoration efforts in Puget Sound, Rep. Norm Dicks said Thursday.

A total of $50 million was approved in the final version of the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, the congressman said, placing Puget Sound on equal footing with the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort.  EPA funding for the Puget Sound Program in the previous year has been $20 million for the key research and remedial actions on the Sound, the nation’s second largest estuary, he said.

Rep. Dicks, who serves as the chairman of the Interior and Environment appropriations subcommittee in the House, had sought to elevate the Puget Sound Program among EPA’s cleanup priorities and place it   on par with the similar multi-jurisdictional Chesapeake Bay program.  The funds were contained in the bill that was initially approved by the House in late June, and ultimately agreed to in a House-Senate conference committee this week.  Senate passage of the bill is expected Friday and, because the bill contains funding necessary to keep the government operating, the President is expected to sign the bill before Sunday.

“This funding represents another major step forward for our cleanup effort, assuring that a more appropriate level of federal resources will be available to address the continuing pollution problems that threaten marine life in the Sound,” Rep. Dicks said.

The bill also continues the effort that the congressman launched previously to restore funds for the basic operations of the National Parks, eroded by several years of static budgets and which have begun to affect the park visitor experience.   For Fiscal Year 2010, the bill drafted by his subcommittee provided an additional $218 million over the last year for the 391 units overseen by the National Park Service. “This will allow us to continue building staffing levels back up to adequate levels at Olympic, Mount Rainier and North Cascades National Parks, as well as at other NPS units that have reduced hiring due to tight budgets in the last decade, he said.

In addition, another increment in the National Park Service’s Elwha River restoration was included in the bill, adding another $20 million to the available resources needed to remove the two dams on the Elwha and restore what was once one of our region’s greatest salmon-producing rivers.  

A summary of the conference agreement is available here.   

Home >> Newsroom