Charles Taylor

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen).

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, today we bring to the House floor the 2007 budget for the Department of the Interior, environment, and related agencies. This bill provides $25.9 billion, which is $418 million above the budget request and $145 million below the 2006 enacted level. It has been a challenging year and difficult choices were made to stay within our allocation for the bill. In keeping with long-standing tradition, this bill has been developed as a bipartisan effort and focuses funding increases on the operations of our national parks and other public lands; Indian programs, including health and education; forest health; and preservation of our national cultural treasures. In order to provide these increases, there are decreases to many grants programs and there are limited new construction and land acquisition projects. In most cases, these choices are not a reflection on the effectiveness of the programs being reduced, but rather reflect the committee's belief that mission-essential Federal programs like the national parks, National Forest and Native American programs must be the number one priority. While we appreciate input from the administration each year, we have made some significant changes to the request, including restoring funds for Johnson O'Malley Education Grants in the Bureau of Indian Affairs; restoring funds for the operations of 32 urban Indian health clinics; restoring funds for PILT; restoring funds for Superfund remediation and environmental education, and research in EPA; restoring funds for forest health and forest road maintenance; and restoring funds for National Heritage Areas and for U.S. Geological Survey mineral assessments. We have provided significant increases to support the operations of our national parks and the Indian Health Service, and we fully fund the National Fire Plan. One area that deserves particular mention, in which we have supported the administration's budget proposal, is the energy area. In the Bureau of Land Management, there are significant increases that will enable us to expedite the permitting of on-shore oil and gas exploration and development on Federal lands. In EPA, we were unable to provide all the requested increases that were associated with the Energy Policy Act of 2005, but we have provided significant increases, including $26 million for the National Clean Diesel Initiative. This committee, and this member in particular, soundly rejects the administration's proposal to sell National Forest lands throughout the country, and we think this will not be happening. We have eliminated Stateside Land and Water Grants, the Forest Service Economic Action Program, the BLM Rural Fire Program, and the Asia Pacific Partnership in EPA. This is a responsible bill that is focused on protecting Federal lands, Indian programs, environmental programs, cultural programs, and other programs under the committee's jurisdiction. I urge you to support this bill. The Ways and Means Committee has recommended that we make a technical change in the appropriations language for the Leaking Underground Storage Tank program in EPA, and we will do that in the final conference agreement. Mr. Chairman, I include for the Record a table detailing the various accounts in the bill. I want to thank our staff, and my colleague, Mr. Dicks, and his staff for the fine work that they have done in preparing the bill and the cooperation they have shown. [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY06.001 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY06.002 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY06.003 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY06.004 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY06.005 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TH18MY06.006

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole).

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlemen from Florida (Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart). (Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I would like to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton).

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. I thank my colleague from New Jersey for bringing this important project to my attention. I will be pleased to consider this funding need, should additional funds become available in conference.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Gilchrest).

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. This amendment would provide an increase of $1.8 million, and while I do not approve of the proposed offset, I am prepared to accept the amendment and we will do that.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that the debate on this amendment and any amendments thereto be limited to 10 minutes to be equally divided and controlled by the proponent and myself, the opponent.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I agree with the gentleman that accurate science, local input, and the establishment of a clear plan is the best approach to solve the problems in the Klamath Basin, and the committee has tried to be helpful in this regard.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young).

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Sherwood).

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Harris). (Ms. HARRIS asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I am willing to accept this amendment and work with the gentlewoman and the Interior Department to increase State and tribal auditing funds. Thank you very much for bringing it to our attention.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I reserve a point of order on the amendment.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I reserve a point of order on the amendment.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I certainly agree with the gentleman that the Federal regulations should be based on sound science, that rural communities should not be unfairly asked to pay additional, unnecessary costs for their drinking water.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, we would be happy to accept it, if the gentlewoman would explain it briefly.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, we will be happy to accept this amendment also.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I raise a point of order against the amendment because it proposes to change existing law and constitutes legislation in an appropriations bill. Therefore, it violates clause 2 of rule XXI.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise and report the bill back to the House with sundry amendments, with the recommendation that the amendments be agreed to and that the bill, as amended, do pass.

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Idaho (Mr. Simpson).

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina

Mr. TAYLOR of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 5386, and that I may include tabular and extraneous materials.