Norm Dicks

Mr. DICKS

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Shays).

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler), one of the strongest supporters of the Interior appropriation bill, and in particular the National Endowment for the Arts.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Hinchey), who is also a valued member of our subcommittee.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is the same as the gentleman's, and I appreciate his bringing this to our attention.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, that is correct.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, I would say to the gentleman from West Virginia, that is correct.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. I want to also commend the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Regula) for his leadership on this committee. I have served with two great chairman, Sid Yates and the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Regula), and the gentleman from Ohio has done a fantastic job, and been fair to everybody. He has worked hard to do a better job on maintenance on our national parks. He pushed through the historic fee demonstration program, which will allow parks to raise money all over the country to make the parks better. I just want to commend him for his 6 years as chairman of this committee. I have really enjoyed personally working with the gentleman. We all will see what happens next year, but I hope that the gentleman from Ohio and I can still work together on these important issues. I want to say how much I appreciate his willingness to adopt the amendment that the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and I presented. I felt it was crucial to getting the bill enacted. I thought it moved in the direction of some of the ideas of CARA. I think it is, frankly, a better bill than CARA, in my own judgment. But the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula) was a gentleman and advocated for the House, and has been a great person to work with. I just want to say to him, I thank him for a job well done. The American people will never fully appreciate what the gentleman has done to improve our parks, our recreation areas, and to make this a better country, but we in the House understand that. We want to compliment the gentleman for his great leadership. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey).

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, how much time is remaining?

Mr. DICKS

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, I would just say to my colleagues, this is an indication of where the money will go under the amendment that I and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) offered. First of all there would be $550 million for the Federal and State Land and Water Conservation Fund. State and other conservation programs would get $300 million. Urban parks and historic preservation, $150 million; $150 million for the maintenance backlog; and $50 million for PILT. This is not guaranteed, but this money is prioritized in the budget allocation and Congress is going to spend this money as we have spent the money on the Violent Crimes trust fund. So it is not a guarantee, but it is about as close as we are going to get to one and still let the Congress have some oversight over these programs. This is a tremendous increase. The President supports it. Most of the outside conservation groups support it. It is a chance for us to triple the amount of funding spent on these programs. Now, it is not CARA; but I actually think it is better than CARA because it is a blend between the President's land legacy and the CARA program.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to read, by the way, the names of the conservation groups that are supporting this rule and the bill: the American Oceans Campaign, Center for Marine Conservation, Defenders of Wildlife, Environmental Defense, Friends of the Earth, National Audubon Society, National Parks Conservation Association, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Natural Resource Defense Council, Scenic America, the Wilderness Society, and the Worldwide Fund. I mean, this is an amazing group of people supporting this. The President supports it. I want my colleagues to know, I believe that this is one of the most important things on a bipartisan basis done in this Congress. So we should be celebrating today. We should be happy with this work product. Let us get on with it. Let us vote for the rule and pass this excellent conference report. Announcement By The Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. DICKS

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the motion. The previous question was ordered.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion to instruct conferees.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the small increase for the Institute for Museum and Library Services will help address, which is only $600,000, I might add, some of the critical needs in this country of our museums and libraries. The dramatic advances in technology, increasing diversity in our population and growing demands for learning across a lifetime requires museums and libraries to provide service in new ways. This is a small but vitally important increase. It is my hope that a favorable vote on this motion to instruct conferees will demonstrate the support for these programs, and I urge support for the motion. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the distinguished gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter).

Mr. DICKS

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, we had a very lively debate in the committee on this subject on HIDTA, and I want to commend the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter) for his amendment. I think there is a problem here. I think we have the same problem out in the State of Washington. We have a crisis in my district with these meth labs, and this is a phenomena that I know that the chairman is well aware of in California where there is the same problem. It is a phenomena that is moving kind of from the West Coast to the East Coast. I am deeply concerned about it. In fact, the governor of the State of Washington, myself, and the prosecuting attorney of Pierce County, Washington, held a conference in our State and brought together all the law enforcement people, including the HIDTA people, and I personally talked to General McCaffrey about this because I am deeply concerned. These meth labs are a tremendous problem. Not only is this a devastating drug that has a terrible impact on the individuals but it also creates tremendous environmental problems, and the cleanup of these meth labs is a tremendous problem for the local communities. I believe that the budget this year for HIDTA at $192 million or thereabouts is inadequate. Now I understand that the chairman and the ranking member have a problem with the allocation here, and they probably would like to do more in this area, because I think we in the Congress think that HIDTA is a pretty decent program; and yet we are caught with this problem of the allocation. I would just urge the chairman and the ranking member, based on the debate we had in the committee, to please take a look at this as we go to conference, as we go through this process. If we get some additional money for this particular bill, I would certainly hope that HIDTA would be one of the areas that we would look at. I can certainly say that this has been a very successful program in Washington State, in the Northwest, and it is a program that needs some additional funding. I realize the administration did not request additional funding for it; but in my view, based on what I have seen out there with this crisis with these meth labs, and it is going all over the Northwest, we have to do more to deal with this problem. Again, I understand the amendment of the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter) here, and I realize that taking the money out of the IRS is a difficult problem; but somehow in the process, before it is over, we have to do something to increase funding for HIDTA.

Mr. DICKS

Mr. DICKS. I yield to the gentleman from Oregon.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman from New Mexico yielding.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman. I want to emphasize that when these rare killings of threatened or endangered species do occur, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Wildlife Services should only use the most humane method of killing, such as shooting or foot snares with tranquilizer tabs.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I would like to engage in a colloquy with the primary author of the amendment, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio). I want to be clear, in light of my responsibilities on the Subcommittee on Interior Appropriations, that the recovery programs for threatened and endangered species conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will not be adversely affected. It is my understanding that the gentleman does not intend to impede recovery programs directed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and sometimes performed in part by the Wildlife Services.

Mr. DICKS

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I object.

Mr. DICKS

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, on these unanimous consent agreements these amendments have been on both sides of the agreement. Republicans have had them and Democrats have had them. I think it has been very fair.

Mr. DICKS. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Mr. Chairman, I would just say to my good friend the chairman, and I understand the emotion here, all of us want to go home, but I will just tell him, at the end of the Interior bill, if he goes back and looks where those amendments were, they were all on his side of the aisle. Vote after vote after vote, we revoted things. And so, do not say this is not evenhanded. They use their tactics whenever they think it is going to do them an advantage. And the gentleman from Washington knows just how exactly that felt.

Mr. DICKS. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.