For Immediate Release

May 19, 2006

HOUSE PASSES INTERIOR BILL;
RESTORES OCS MORATORIUM

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House of Representatives approved the Interior appropriations bill late Thursday, but only after restoring the longstanding moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling, including off the Washington and Oregon coasts, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks said.

            When the legislation was approved during committee consideration earlier this week, it was amended to allow new drilling for gas deposits along the outer-continental shelf, and last night’s action by the full membership of the House reversed that action, Rep. Dicks said.

            Before approving the bill last night, the House also specifically voted – by a wide margin—to end the “royalty relief” that had been offered to oil and gas companies as an incentive, Rep. Dicks said.  “With the oil companies reaping record profits at this time, it was clearly a time for the House to act to assure that the Treasury receives the full amount of the royalties that come from domestic oil and gas production,” he added.

            Rep. Dicks, who serves as the ranking Democratic member of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, had also encouraged the House to include language in the bill to recognize the need for national action to address the human-caused aspects of global warming.  While the House did not approve specific mitigation actions in the bill – because of procedural concerns -- the debate over Rep. Dicks’ amendment “demonstrated a growing awareness in the House that we need to adopt a broader U.S. program of response to the worldwide environmental problems that are occurring because of the buildup of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere,” he said.

            The Interior bill also contains a major boost in funding for the Puget Sound program in the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency.  A total of $6 million was approved in the next fiscal year for the program that was created last year – with a $2 million appropriation—to coordinate the federal participation in environmental research and remediation efforts in Puget Sound. The program is modeled after similar efforts on the Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes, and it complements a broader environmental effort launched in Washington State involving state, city and county agencies as well as Indian tribes and citizen groups, Rep. Dicks said.  The Washington effort – called the “Puget Sound Partnership” – was launched earlier this year by Gov. Christine Gregoire as one of the state’s highest environmental action priorities.

            The separately-identified account in EPA has helped to refine the focus of all of the ongoing research and pollution abatement activities within the agency, the congressman said.

            Also approved by the House in the Interior bill was another large increment in the Elwha River restoration project, initiated by the National Park Service several years ago to remove the two dams on the Elwha River and restore what was once a thriving salmon fishery on the Olympic Peninsula.  Rep. Dicks noted that since most of the River has been protected within the Olympic National Park, removing the dams offers the “unique possibility of re-creating an ideal salmon spawning habitat that has been largely untouched by the development that has degraded most other rivers and streams in the region.”

            For the next fiscal year the bill contains $20 million for the Elwha restoration effort, bringing the total federal funding approved by Congress for the project to $151.7 the congressman said.

            The bill also adds funding for major construction projects at Mount Rainier National Park, with $2.791 allocated for continued renovation of the Jackson Visitors Center and $8.08 million budgeted for the restoration work that is now underway at Paradise Inn – both located at the 5,400 level of the 14,411-foot peak.  It also provides $1.5 million for acquisition of lands within the expanded boundaries of the park.  In 2004, 800 acres of old-growth forest on the northwest border was added by Congress to the park, creating a wildlife corridor for migrating elk and other animals.

            Several other northwest fisheries enhancement programs are funded in the bill – either through the Fish & Wildlife Service account, the U.S. Geological Survey or the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) budget.  Included are:

  • Continued funding for the “Long Live the Kings” salmon recovery effort on Hood Canal - $200,000
  • Salmon Habitat Restoration activities conducted by the Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group - $200,000
  • National Fish & Wildlife Foundation -- Washington State Salmon recovery grants to local organizations - $1.5 million
  • Regional Fisheries Enhancement Groups – for recovery and habitat work along fish runs on private lands - $1.4 million
  • Hood Canal Dissolved Oxygen research program, within U.S. Geological Survey, examining causes of low oxygen levels that have resulted in fish kills on Hood Canal - $100,000
  • Environmental Data Quality and Access Improvement Project, coordinated by Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife - $500,000
  • Spartina Eradication Program on Willapa Bay National Wildlife Refuge – continued removal of the Spartina alterniflora weed in Willapa Bay - $1.2 million
  • Expansion of Spartina Eradication effort to a similar problem in Grays Harbor - $300,000

            In addition, the Interior bill continues a program launched in the Pacific Northwest three years ago by Rep. Dicks that identifies hatchery raised salmon stocks in order to protect threatened and endangered species.  It requires hatchery fish to be visibly distinguished by clipping the small, unused adipose fin on each fish.  A total of $2.5 million ($1 million in BIA; $1.5 million in U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) was approved for this “mass marking” effort in the upcoming fiscal year.

            Also within the budget of the Forest Service, the bill funds the amount requested in the President’s budget, $1.88 million, for the Tahuya Headwaters Pope project – ranked among the top 20 projects in the agency’s “Forest Legacy” program.  The Forest Service budget also includes $1 million in land acquisition funding for purchases along the Columbia River Gorge.

            Finally, within the EPA’s “State and Tribal Assistance Grants” budget, the bill adds another $1 million for continued wastewater infrastructure and water quality improvement on Hood Canal, concentrating in the next year on the Skokomish Indian Reservation.


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