Ralph Regula

Mr. REGULA

Mr. REGULA. Well, I think, I say to the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Yates], that we do accomplish the goal of establishing a moratorium. I think we achieved what we were directed to do by the motion to recommit that you offered in the first go around on this. If the President keeps his word that he will not sign any bill containing mining reform that is not good, then we have no problem, because it is clear that the moratorium stays in place unless there is a mining reform bill in reconciliation that has to be signed by the President.

Mr. REGULA. Well, I think, in response to the gentleman, that we have accomplished what your motion to recommit directed us to do, and that is we have put a moratorium in this bill.

Mr. REGULA

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 253, I call up the conference report on the bill (H.R. 1977) making appropriations for the Department of the Interior and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1996, and for other purposes.

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time to close.

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Kolbe]. (Mr. KOLBE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, obviously, if the President vetoes the bill, we will not be able to do it, but I think we ought to give him a chance to make a decision. As it is, he cannot even address the issue. If he does veto the bill and sends it back, at least we will know through that what his concerns are. I think in terms of an orderly procedure, let us do that. Then if he is not satisfied, we will know and we can address that by further action of our appropriate committees. In conclusion I would urge my colleagues to support this bill. It is fiscally responsible and it meets the concerns of my colleagues who voted a month ago for reconsideration with respect to the mining patent moratorium. At this point I ask that a table detailing the various amounts in the bill as agreed to by the conference managers be included in the Record. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the following material:

Mr. REGULA

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Upton].

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Hayworth].

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself one-half minute. Mr. Speaker, on the matter of the native Americans, the conference came up from the Senate $86.5 million. The House had a substantially higher number, the Senate was much lower, and we did restore a good portion of that and we allocated most of the increase to the tribal priority allocations. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Nevada [Mrs. Vucanovich], a member of the subcommittee.

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, that is my understanding of the conference agreement.

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Myers].

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with somewhat mixed emotions. I had hoped to bring my first Interior appropriations conference agreement, as chairman, to the floor with unqualified support. Unfortunately, there are some divisions among conferees as you will note from the conference report. Mr. Speaker, the essence of democracy is compromise. In my 9 months as chairman I have learned that our form of government is truly a democracy, and I would not change that. Despite that fact, I, like many of our conferees, am not happy with every provision in the bill. However, the conference agreement before you today is an excellent example of how we on the Committee on Appropriations have taken our pledge to balance the budget very seriously. Mr. Speaker, the bill before you today charts a new course, a fiscally responsible course, but a course which also provides for the protection and enhancement of our public lands, preserves the critical science and research capabilities, and maintains health and education programs for native Americans and, I would add, very important, respects private property rights. While I believe this bill is fiscally very responsible and represents common sense, the action of the conferees with respect to mining is in direct opposition to the views of a bipartisan majority of this body, as was evident by the vote on the Klug amendment, I understand there will probably be a motion to recommit and each Member will have to make his or her own decision on the mining policy issue. Mr. Speaker, the bill is 10 percent, or $1.4 billion below 1995 spending levels. This represents real savings, both now and in the future. By not starting new programs or construction, we save costs in future years. The bill terminates agencies and programs and puts others on notice that Federal funding will terminate in the near future. This bill is not business as usual. We are not cutting at the margins with the hopes that we can keep programs on life support until more money becomes available in the future. Instead, we have terminated lower priority initiatives to provide scarce resources to meet the many critical needs of our public lands, to ensure quality health and education for native Americans and to promote quality science and research in energy and public land management. Specifically, four agencies are eliminated: the National Biological Service; Bureau of Mines; DOE's Office of Emergency Preparedness; and Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation. In addition, more than 35 individual programs have been eliminated. With respect to the National Biological Service, an issue of some interest to many in this body, let me reiterate that the NBS has been eliminated. However, as many agreed, the core natural resource research activities, critical to responsible stewardship of our public lands, has been preserved and will be carried out by what is widely recognized as the premier unbiased, credible, specific agency, the U.S. Geological Survey. This will ensure that critical research, critical scientific information will continue, and that it will be conducted independent of regulatory influence or agendas and will ensure scientific excellence. In keeping with our commitment to reduce spending, we have also cut funding for this activity by 15 percent. As to the endangered species program, we are waiting on the authorizing committee inasmuch as the authorization for the Endangered Species Act has expired and we hope that the Committee on Resources will bring out a bill. The appropriation recognizes that we are waiting for that action. The National Endowment for the Arts is funded at the House-passed level of $99.5 million. The statement of the managers also makes it clear that it is the intent of the House to terminate Federal support for the NEA after fiscal year 1997. Again, this is consistent with the authorizing bill that has come out of the committee of jurisdiction. Funding for land acquisition, as in the House-passed bill, is not earmarked and is funded at 40 percent below last year's funding levels. This ensures that the limited funding will be directed only to high priority projects for the four land management agencies. If there is a critical piece of land, there will be funding available, but we do no earmarking. Contrary to what Members may have read in their local press, passage of this bill will not force the closure of one single national park or recreation area. No park will be forced to close under this agreement, as funding for park operations is over 1995 levels by $5 million. I would point out that this is in the face of a 10-percent reduction overall. We have kept the funding for those agencies, those facilities where the public interfaces at pretty much 1995 levels in terms of operations. In the case of the parks, it is $5 million over 1995. There certainly is not reason whatsoever to close any park. To achieve that, increased savings were made in lower priority park programs such as land acquisition and construction. Those things are nice to do, but we did not have the funding to achieve that. Initially, I tried to divide the responsibilities into three categories, must-do's need-to-do's and nice-to-do's. Some of these are nice to do, but we had to take care of the must-do's. Construction has been reduced by more than 14 percent, and land acquisition is down nearly 44 percent. Overall--and that is including every dimension of the park activity--funding is [[Page H 9679]] down less than 5 percent. With respect to construction, we have funded critical maintenance, health and safety, and repair and rehabilitation rather than starting new projects. In effect, let us take care of what we have. This is very important. All of you who are homeowners recognize that you have to take care of the repairs and rehabilitation of a structure or the result of much more expensive problems late on. We have taken that approach in dealing with our responsibility in terms of construction. Funding for critical scientific research is also maintained, including important health and safety research and mineral assessments of the former Bureau of Mines, which will now be carried out by the USGS and the Department of Energy for significant savings. This disposition upholds the House position that much of the work of the Bureau in health and safety research and minerals information is critical and these functions will be preserved. I might also add that in terms of the energy funding, we respect the contractual obligations of the U.S. Government. We have many projects that are underway and research through contracts with universities, almost all of them matching funds. Nevertheless we ensure that these contracts can be carried out and that the word of the U.S. Government will be maintained. Core programs that are critical to providing for the needs of native Americans have also been maintained. Funding for the Indian Health Service is down less than 1 percent from last year's level. I might add that many native Americans came to see me in the past 3 weeks, and without exception they said the most important thing to them is the tribal priority allocations [TPA]. We recognize their concerns, and for that reason we directed the $87 million increase over the Senate to TPA. Energy programs have also been reduced 10 percent from 1995 levels with commitments for continued downward trends. Numerous energy projects were terminated and the limited funding focused on projects and programs which leveraged significant non-Federal investment. While new construction was significantly curtailed, it was our goal to take care of necessary maintenance and rehabilitation of Federal facilities, and a good example is the Smithsonian, where the conference report provides nearly $34 million, which is the President's budget request, for critical repair and restoration of aging Smithsonian facilities. As Members may recall, when the Interior bill was on the House floor in July, the House voted 271 to 153 to support maintaining the existing moratorium on the issuance of mineral patents on public lands. However, the Senate prevailed in the conference, and that moratorium is not presently in the conference report. I reiterate, in terms of the budget, this is a good bill and with respect to the stewardship of our public lands and resources, I also believe it is a good bill. In the long term we cannot truly be good stewards of our public lands and our cultural and natural resources, we cannot foster scientific excellence, we cannot ensure a better future for native Americans, we cannot improve our energy security, if we cannot first get our fiscal house in order. I think it is imperative for future generations, if they are to have the same rich heritage that we have, that we have control of our fiscal house, that we not spend their future. Page 53 in the statement of the managers which accompanies the conference report--House Report 104-259--contains a typographical error under amendment No. 110 which deals with the fossil energy research and development appropriation for the Department of Energy. The general reduction to processing research and downstream operations in the oil technology program is $1,100,000. Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record at this point a table on the various amounts in the bill as agreed to by the conference managers. [[Page H 9680]] TH29SE95.000 [[Page H 9681]] TH29SE95.001 [[Page H 9682]] TH29SE95.002 [[Page H 9683]] TH29SE95.003 [[Page H 9684]] Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. REGULA. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 231, I call up the conference report on the bill (H.R. 1977), making appropriations for the Department of the Interior and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1996, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona [Mr. Shadegg].

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I just want to correct something. The gentleman mentioned that the Office of Indian Education had been terminated. That is not accurate because in the House we added back $52.5 million for that office, and we maintained that in the conference committee. So there is now $52.5 million for the Office of Indian Education.

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Boehlert]. (Mr. BOEHLERT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. REGULA

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alaska [Mr. Young], the chairman of the Committee on Resources.

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Idaho [Mr. Crapo].

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 additional minute to the gentleman from Idaho [Mr. Crapo].

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, just a couple of things I want to emphasize. We respect private property rights in this bill, perhaps more than has been historically true. We have tried to protect those. We have tried to ensure that we protect America's natural heritage. I would have to point out, obviously we have $1.4 billion less, and I think those who have spoken in opposition to the bill have made that case that we should have spent more. But if we are going to get a balanced budget in 7 years, it has to start somewhere. We have tried to do the things that are important. Again, I emphasize, the parks will be open. The forests, the Smithsonian, the fish and wildlife facilities, the Kennedy Center, the National Gallery of Art, their operating budgets have been held pretty much intact, because we want the public to continue to have access to the facilities that they treasure. We had to make it up on land acquisition and many other activities that had not as high a priority. Even on the Bureau of Indian Affairs, where it was something that affected the tribal activities, we have maintained the level of funding. On the issue of the moratorium, I think it is a policy question. Members have heard debate on both sides. Each Member will have to make his or her own decision. We were instructed to maintain the moratorium by a voice vote and the original amendment carried 271 to 153. But there was a difference among conferees as reflected in the report.

Mr. REGULA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on the conference report.