Interior and Environment

We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. Let us hope we have some answers before our nation's well fails us.

* EPA Cut -17% * Drasticly Underfunds Conservation * 20 Special Interest Riders

The deep funding cuts necessitated by the 302(b) allocation, as well as the various special interest riders and funding limitations that were included in the subcommittee bill, would cause real harm to the environment and to efforts to preserve America's natural and cultural heritage.

As much as I appreciate the process, I can't support the product. The deep funding cuts to important conservation and environmental protection programs would, if enacted, cause serious harm to our environment. Likewise, this bill again includes a number of riders and funding limitations that I believe do not belong in the bill and whose effect would be to undermine important environmental law.

I commend Secretary Salazar and the President for recognizing and acting on the severe and systemic shortcomings in the government's regulation of what is a high risk enterprise. The fact that Director Beaudreau and Director Watson are sitting before us today as the heads of two new agencies is emblematic of the changes that have been made and continue to be made by the Interior Department to protect the public and the environment.

As I look over your budget request Mr. Secretary, I am struck by the wide-ranging responsibilities carried out by the Department of the Interior. I welcome your efforts to balance these responsibilities as a steward of significant aspects of America's natural and cultural heritage.

The bill continues the majority's assault on the Environmental Protection Agency with deep cuts proposed in many EPA programs. EPA funding under the bill would reduce agency employees to 1992 levels and provides $442 million dollars less than was provided to the EPA in 1999. When the majority says it wants to rein in the EPA, what they really want to rein in is the protection of our air and water.