Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 5503 - Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, FY 1993

(Senate Floor)
(Sponsor: Byrd (D), West Virginia)

The purpose of this Statement of Administration Policy is to provide the Administration's views on H.R. 5503, the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, FY 1993, as reported by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

In the Administration's view, the bill reported by the Senate Committee is an improvement over the bill as passed by the House. The Administration commends the Committee for taking constructive steps toward developing a bill that is more substantially aligned with the Administration's priorities.

The Committee has funded Interior and Agriculture wildland firefighting programs at the requested levels, ensuring that anticipated needs will be met within the discretionary spending limits established by the Budget Enforcement Act (BEA). In addition, the Committee has terminated funding for unnecessary Urban Park Grants, deleted grazing fee increases set outside the process established by Executive Order, and removed the prohibition on issuance of mineral patents.

However, the Administration does have several concerns about the Committee bill, noted below, and respectfully requests that the Senate address these concerns.

Like the House, the Committee has provided inadequate funding for recreation, resource protection, operational and cyclical maintenance, tree planting, hazardous waste clean-up, and other initiatives for our public lands. This is particularly surprising given the increasing demand on the part of the American public for outdoor recreation opportunities.

The Committee bill's net funding level for America the Beautiful (ATB) programs is roughly $250 million, or 14 percent, below the amounts requested by the President. While failing to provide adequate funding for high-priority natural and historical resource conservation, the Committee has provided funding for non-essential and often ineffective programs. The attached table compares the Committee's reductions in funding for parks, wildlife, and outdoor recreation programs to additions made by the House and by the Committee for low-priority projects and programs.

As the table shows, the Committee has added almost $350 million to the request for low-priority Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Health Service (IHS) programs. It has also added over $30 million for unrequested infrastructure and operations in the territories and non-competitive grants to Washington, D. C., arts and cultural organizations. At the same time, the Committee has cut over $320 million from the Administration's request for public lands, and has ignored the untapped third-party insurance reimbursements that IHS should be receiving.

At a time when visits to our national parks and forests are at record levels, placing them under increasing stress, the Administration believes that funds to protect these valuable resources should not be reduced. The Administration urges the Senate to restore funding to requested levels for nationally significant ATB resource protection and tree planting programs. These include:

• Federal land acquisition, including Headwaters Forest in California;
  
  
• The partnership with the States to support outdoor recreation, for which the Administration has requested $60 million and the Committee has provided $28 million;
  
  
• The President's program to plant one billion trees a year;
  
  
• The program to protect America's remaining battlefields, which are threatened by imminent development and other intrusive forces;
  
  
• The "Targeted Parks" initiative to improve monitoring and protection of parks facing acute natural resource problems;
  
  
• Challenge cost-share programs for parks and refuges, which would foster public/private partnerships to restore and enhance these areas;
  
  
• More seasonal park rangers to provide visitor services and increase resource protection; and
  
  
• Establishment of the ATB Passport that is specially designed to provide 12 months of access to a wide variety of Federally administered outdoor recreation areas.

Further, the Administration believes that proper preservation of the sites and structures that hosted nationally significant historic events is critical. The Administration Strongly recommends that the Senate restore $5 million for historic preservation efforts at our nation's historically black colleges and universities as well as Montpelier (VA), James Madison's ancestral home.

The Administration opposes the continuation of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) oil and gas leasing moratoria on all activity in Bristol Bay, Alaska; on Sale 164 in the Atlantic; and on Sales 137 and 151 in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. Sales 164 and 151 are contained in Interior's final 1992-1997 natural gas and oil leasing plan and would cost the Treasury $10 million in bonus bids if not held on schedule. Reforms in Interior's new leasing plan make the OCS oil and gas program more selective, judicious, and environmentally sound, making these legislative moratoria inappropriate and unnecessary.

The Administration strongly objects to the continued refusal to lease the Elk Hills, California, oil field to private industry. Leasing is the method the U.S. Government has used consistently elsewhere in this country to ensure the sound development of Federally owned oil and gas resources in a manner that protects the Government's interests.

Private industry would pay the government $1.2 billion or more for the right to lease Elk Hills. Private industry would also invest hundreds of millions of dollars in needed production equipment at the oil field, thereby eliminating the need for Congress to appropriate scarce budgetary resources for those purposes. It is important to note that if the Senate were to adopt the Administration's leasing proposal, the projected $1.2 billion in receipts would be available for high-priority domestic discretionary programs.

Preliminary Scoring

The Committee has included $14 million in National Park Service operations funds for conversion of the Presidio in San Francisco into a national park. The Committee has scored these funds as defense discretionary. These funds are not under the control of a Defense official. Based on a preliminary review, OMB is scoring the funding as domestic discretionary.

On the basis of OMB's preliminary scoring, the Committee bill is within the Senate 602(b) domestic discretionary allocations for Interior Department and related agencies activities. In aggregate, the Senate 602(b) allocations are consistent with the statutory spending limits mandated by the BEA. Attached is a table that reflects preliminary OMB scoring of the Committee bill.

Additional Administration concerns with the Committee bill are contained in the attachment.

Attachments

Attachments
(Senate Floor)

ADDITIONAL CONCERNS
H.R. 5503 — INTERIOR AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS BILL, FY 1993

MAJOR PROVISIONS OPPOSED BY THE ADMINISTRATION

A. Funding Levels

Department of the Interior

Interior Construction. The Administration opposes the excessive funding levels for new construction proposed by the Committee. The Committee bill would provide approximately $179 million, or 60 percent, more than the President's request for Interior's land management agencies, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Office of Territorial Affairs. Much of the additional funding is unnecessary and directed at marginal or non-essential projects that are not in the Department's backlog of needed health and safety projects. It is the Administration's view that new construction is a lower priority than providing quality operation, maintenance, and rehabilitation of existing facilities.

Even with a 60-percent increase, the Committee provides reduced funding for key environmental maintenance and rehabilitation projects proposed in the President's budget, including the cleanup of Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge in Illinois and the Yosemite maintenance facility in California.

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Operations and Construction. The Administration objects to the funding level for BIA operations and construction in the Committee bill. The Committee mark is about $140 million, or 10 percent, above the President's request. Much of the additional operations funding is earmarked for specific tribes or tribal organizations and would not be available for distribution to all Federally recognized tribes. The additional construction funding is for marginal or lower-priority education, law enforcement, and irrigation projects and can be postponed or foregone.

The Administration also objects to implementing a new budget structure for BIA operations and construction programs for FY 1993. This would require substantial changes in BIA accounting systems in order for the new structure to be in place for the beginning of the next fiscal year. The Administration has spent the past year and a half working to correct long-standing accounting problems at BIA, including conversion to a new accounting system last October. Even with the conversion, problems still exist in properly accounting for appropriated funds. Given these problems, the Administration believes that a major BIA budget structure change should be postponed until FY 1994.

Program Terminations and Consolidations Disapproved bv the Committee. The Senate is urged to reconsider Committee actions that would overturn program terminations or consolidations proposed in the FY 1993 Budget. These include funding for BIA Business Development Grants, Direct Loans, and the Navajo Trust Fund ($13 million over the request); the Bureau of Mines Mineral Institutes ($14 million); and the Office of Surface Mining Emergency and Rural Abandoned Mine (RAMP) Programs ($31 million).

BIA business development grants have little or no documented record of success, and would continue unnecessary reliance on the BIA for assistance to Indian businesses. BIA direct loans to Indian businesses have a delinquency rate of more than 50 percent.

The Administration places its emphasis for Indian business development on BIA's 90-percent loan guarantees. These guarantees (proposed for a 12- percent increase in FY 1993, supported by the Committee) would enable individuals to shift their reliance from the BIA to private-sector commercial lending, which provides the most viable long-term source of funds and expertise for the nation's new businesses.

Discretionary payments of $4 million to BIA's Navajo Trust Fund, which funds infrastructure improvements on certain Navajo tribal lands in Arizona and New Mexico, should be suspended until it is certain that the taxpayers' contributions to the Fund (almost $8 million to date) will be repaid, as required by law.

The Mineral Institutes Program was started in the 1970s to provide seed money for encouraging development of mineral-related university research and graduate education programs. The States have responded since then, and such programs are now in place, ending the need for further direct Federal funding.

RAMP, which operates small-scale rural mine land reclamation projects and is administered by the Department of Agriculture, duplicates existing State reclamation activities funded through Interior's

Abandoned Mine Land (AML) grant program. The FY 1993 Budget proposes no additional RAMP funding in order to eliminate this duplication and to ensure that such activities are State reclamation priorities.

The President's budget proposes that the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) Emergency Program be funded from State AML grants, instead of being funded separately through OSM. This consolidation would ensure that such activities are true emergencies and priorities from the States' perspective and help abate current, unconstrained cost increases for the Emergency Program in certain States.

Foundation Scholarship Add-On. The Administration objects to the use of $10 million in land acquisition funds in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for a scholarship foundation. These funds should be used for the requested purpose: to acquire nationally significant wetlands, riparian areas, and other important areas of critical environmental concerns within BLM's part of the America the Beautiful initiative.

Bureau of Mines (BOM) and United States Geological Survey (USGS) Research and Studies Programs. The Administration opposes additional funding for research, studies, and data collection, for both BOM and USGS ($67 million, or 10 percent, over the request). The President's requested funding levels for earth science data collection would meet the highest priority needs. While the Administration recognizes the importance of research and development, the research conducted by these bureaus should be both long-term and high-risk. Many of the Committee's increases are for studies and research that are lower-priority and can be accomplished by non-Federal entities.

Funding Increases for Territories. The Administration objects to $24 million in new construction and operational funding additions for the Insular Areas and Freely Associated States. These are substantial, unnecessary increases, and they would be provided at the expense of critically underfunded Interior programs. They would add to a substantial inventory of continuing projects and instill the belief that local infrastructure needs and financial management problems should be addressed through perpetual Federal funding increases.

The Administration opposes the Committee bill's $5.7 million increase for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Self-sufficiency for CNMI has been a long-standing goal of CNMI Covenant funding, and the Federal Government has provided $420 million toward this goal since 1978. Unprecedented economic growth and expanding local revenues during this period have greatly increased the CNMI's potential for self- sufficiency. The Administration has been negotiating with the CNMI for over a year to obtain a new multiyear funding agreement that would provide essential funding while recognizing the CNMI's decreased need for Federal assistance.

Further, the Administration objects to the Committee's rejection of a one-time, $27.7 million mandatory savings, allowable under BEA scorekeeping rules, as a result of shifting CNMI funding from mandatory to discretionary in FV 1993. The $22 million discretionary level proposed for the CNMI would provide adequate funding until a new agreement is negotiated, while freeing up badly needed discretionary funding for other Interior programs.

Inspector General. The Committee provides $24 million, a reduction of $2.5 million, or 10 percent, from the President's request for the Office of Inspector General (OIG). This reduction could seriously affect the ability of the OIG to conduct legislatively mandated audits of financial statements as well as audits and investigations of high risk areas and other priority issues. Audits and necessary oversight of high risk areas such as those listed in the President's budget for the Office of Territorial and International Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Financial Management Systems and Controls, may be reduced significantly. In addition, deficiencies in BIA school facilities and Dam Safety could be curtailed. The Administration urges that these reductions be restored.

Financial Management. The Administration objects to the provisions throughout the Committee bill that would delete funding for conversion to the Federal Financial System. These funding deletions would defer completion of a multi-year project to convert all Interior bureaus to a standard accounting system. A single software standard throughout the Department would allow efficient central support of software development and enhancement. Deferral of the funding would ensure continued fragmentation of software support.

Department of Agriculture

Forest Service Roads Program. The Administration strongly objects to the Committee's $59 million, or 29 percent, reduction to requested funding for Forest Service Roads. Included in the bill's overall reduction is a $15 million decrease for timber roads, which represents a 14-percent reduction from the Administration's request. Such a reduction would further limit the Forest Service's ability to meet timber sale levels targeted for FY 1993.

The Committee has reduced requested funding for recreation roads by $31 million, or 52 percent. This would severely limit the Forest Service's efforts to meet increasing recreation user demands and implement the Recreation Initiative component of the President's America the Beautiful program.

Tropical Forestry. The Administration strongly opposes the $4.5 million reduction to the Forest Service Tropical Forestry Initiative, a 47-percent decrease from the President's request. The Tropical Forestry Initiative is an important component to the overall U.S. commitment to international forestry.

Department of Energy

Fossil Energy Research and Development. The Committee has provided $67.8 million, $46 million more than requested, for research programs in acid rain-related coal preparation and flue gas clean-up, atmospheric fluidized beds, and magneto hydrodynamics. All of these Department of Energy programs have been researched extensively, and it is the Administration's view that the private sector should assume responsibility for commercialization of these technologies.

The Administration strongly objects to the addition of $19 million in overhead expenses and payroll costs for Fossil Energy Research and Development Program Direction. Program Direction costs in the Fossil program are the highest, proportionally, of any Energy program, partly as a result of continued Congressional imposition of excessive employment floors.

Energy Conservation. The Committee bill rejects an Administration request to use $20 million in conservation grant funding to leverage an additional $40 million from non-Federal sources. Instead, the Committee has applied $20 million to a grants program that would leverage no additional funds. By taking this action, the Committee ignores the opportunity to use Federal funds in what the Administration believes is the most cost-effective manner.

Other

Indian Health Service (IHS). The Administration objects to the Committee's excessive funding increases for IHS. The Committee has provided $196 million, or 10 percent, more than the President's request. This represents a $142 million, or eight percent, increase over the FY 1992 enacted level. The Committee's mark fails to take into consideration the tremendous funding increases IHS has received in recent years (58 percent from FY 1989 to FY 1992), as well as the untapped private third-party insurance reimbursements IHS should be receiving.

Commission of Fine Arts. The Administration objects to the appropriation of $7 million for general operating support, on a non-competitive grant basis, to Washington, D.C., arts and cultural organizations, administered by the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs Grant program. This funding is unnecessary as it is a duplication of existing Federal, nationwide competitive grants.

Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation (PADC). The Administration objects to the Committee's reducing funding for PADC land acquisition activities by $4 million below the President's request of $6.5 million. This reduction would jeopardize PADC's effort to develop the last remaining unrestored block in the Pennsylvania Avenue redevelopment area. The owners of the property have been unwilling to participate with PADC in making improvements to this area, which is across from the National Portrait Gallery, putting at risk the investment already made in surrounding areas. Failure to acquire this block in a timely manner would result in increased costs to the Federal government and its private sector partners.

B. Language Provisions

BIA Dam Safety. The Administration objects to the Committee's failure to fund the proposed transfer of oversight responsibility for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) dam safety program to the Bureau of Reclamation. The Administration first proposed this transfer in FY 1991 after the Department of the Interior Inspector General reported that the BIA had not effectively managed the program from either an engineering or financial standpoint. BIA has made some improvement in its dam safety program, as documented in a recent GAO report. Nevertheless, the Administration believes that the best engineering expertise for accomplishing this important function lies in the Bureau of Reclamation.

The Secretary of the Interior should be allowed to exercise his management discretion on how best to use the technical and management expertise of the Bureau of Reclamation to ensure the timely correction of serious safety deficiencies at a number of high-hazard BIA dams. Indian tribes would participate in implementing corrective actions on reservation dams, through contracts or, if a tribe chooses, through consultation.

Payments to States for Spotted Owl. The Administration objects to the language of the Committee bill that would guarantee states affected by decisions relating to the Northern Spotted Owl no less than 85 percent of shared timber receipts that would have been collected for a baseline period of fiscal years 1986 through 1990, regardless of the amounts actually collected. Any shortfall in receipts would be paid from the portion of receipts that would otherwise be returned to the Treasury.

Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) and Naval Petrols Reserve (NPR) Employment Floors. The Administration strongly objects to the establishment of new employment "floors" for personnel assigned to the SPR and the NPR. Such restrictions on personnel allocations hamper the ability of the Administration to serve the public effectively. The Administration urges the Senate to remove the floors and to allow the Department of Energy to allocate personnel in the most effective way.

Committee Approval Provisions. The Administration objects to bill language that purports to restrict the use of funds or to limit agency actions unless approval is granted by Congressional committees. Such provisions are unconstitutional (see INS v. Chadha. 462 U.S. 919 (1983)). This objection applies to several provisions that have been included in previous Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Bills. These include portions of the Administrative Provisions of the Forest Service and the Indian Health Service, as well as section 307 of the General Provisions. In any event, the Executive Branch will continue to provide the Committees notification and consultation that interbranch comity requires in matters in which Congress has indicated such a special interest.

The attached data tables can be downloaded in PDF format by clicking this link