D.C. - Environmentalists are praising the Clinton Administration for the funding and policy fights it has won in negotiations on the gigantic FY 99 omnibus appropriations bill. However, they also warn that a large number of anti-environmental provisions remain in the draft legislation, and they encourage White House negotiators not to accept a final bill until most if not all destructive riders have been axed. Unfortunately, even at this eleventh hour, congressional negotiators keep finding new ways to attack the environment.
Pernicious riders keep slipping into the appropriations package.
The Defenders president said that the chaos reflects a deliberate congressional strategy. New destructive measures keep popping up. As an example, Defenders notes, within the past 24 hours, a few Members of Congress have slipped in a provision authorizing the Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation District in Arizona to block changes to water contracts by the Secretary of Interior and thus opt out of requirements for protection of water needed by endangered species. During the summer congressional recess, Defenders compiled a list of measures enacted or pending in the 105th Congress that are opposed by conservation groups. Two dozen groups sponsored a newspaper ad comparing those 70 measures to 30 enacted during the 104th Congress.