On June 16, 2000, the House passed the FY2001 Interior Appropriations bill, H.R. 4578 ( H.Rept. 106-646 ) by a vote of 204-172. The FY2001recommended level of $14.6 billion is $1.7 billion below the President's request and$302 million below the FY2000 enacted level. The Interior Subcommittee of theSenate Appropriations Committee and the full Senate Appropriations Committeemarked up the bill on June 20, 2000 and June 22, 2000, respectively. On July 18,2000, the Senate passed H.R. 4578 ( S.Rept. 106-312 ) by a vote of 97-2. The FY2001-recommended level is $15.8 billion in total budget authority. AHouse-Senate conference agreement ( H.Rept. 106-914 ) provides for a funding levelof $18.8 billion. The conference report ( H.Rept. 106-914 ) was passed by the Houseon October 3, 2000 by a vote of 348-69 and was passed by the Senate on October 5,2000, by a vote of 83-13. President Clinton signed H.R. 4578 into law( P.L. 106-291 ) on October 11, 2000. The annual Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations bill includes fundingfor agencies and programs in four separate federal departments, as well as numeroussmaller agencies and diverse programs. The bill includes funding for the InteriorDepartment except the Bureau of Reclamation, but only segments of the funding ofthe other three departments, Agriculture, Energy, and Health and Human Services.The President's FY2001 budget request for Interior and Related Agencies totals$16.32 billion compared to the $14.91billion enacted by Congress for FY2000. TitleI of the bill includes agencies within the Department of the Interior which manageland and other natural resource programs, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and InsularAffairs. Title II of the bill includes the Forest Service of the Department ofAgriculture; research and development programs of the Department of Energy, theNaval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve; andthe Indian Health Services in the Department of Health and Human Services. Inaddition, Title II includes a variety of related agencies, such as the SmithsonianInstitution, National Gallery of Art, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities,and the Holocaust Memorial Council. Table 1. Status of Department of the Interior and RelatedAgencies Appropriations, FY2001 On February 7, 2000, President Clinton submitted his FY2001 budget to Congress. The FY2001 request for Interior and Related Agencies totals $16.32billion compared to the $14.91 billion enacted for FY2000 ( P.L. 106-113 ), anincrease of $1.41 billion. (With scorekeeping adjustments, including anacross-the-board cut of 0.38% for FY2000, the figures are $16.49 billion requestedfor FY2001 compared with $14.90 billion enacted for FY2000.) Significant increases above the FY2000 enacted level include: the Bureau of Indian Affairs (+ $331.9 million), the Forest Service (+ $290.1 million), the Fish andWildlife Service (+ $251.5 million), the National Park Service (+ $238.4 million),the U.S. Geological Survey (+ $82.0 million), the Bureau of Land Management(+$127.6 million), the Indian Health Service (+ $229.7 million), the NationalEndowment for the Arts (+ $52.4 million), and the National Endowment for theHumanities (+ $34.7 million). The only significant decrease involves Departmentof Energy programs (-$65.3 million). The Clinton Administration again introduced its Lands Legacy Initiative, requesting $1.4 billion for FY2001. Almost $1 billion of this amount is requestedin Interior appropriations. Of this amount, $735 million is included for theDepartment of Interior (Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, andthe National Park Service), and another $236 million is for the U.S. Forest Service,within the Department of Agriculture. While a diverse array of issues are raised during consideration of Interior appropriations legislation, a number have been perennially controversial. Theseinclude funding for the Fish and Wildlife Service's Endangered Species program(+$49 million), and for the National Endowment for the Arts and the NationalEndowment for the Humanities. The Interior Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee marked up the FY2001 Interior Appropriations bill on May 17, 2000. The FY2001recommended level of $14.6 billion is $1.7 billion below the President's request and$302 million below the FY2000 enacted level. Increases were provided for National Park Operations (+ $62 million to $1.4 billion), Bureau of Land Management (+ $30 million to $1.3 billion), NationalWildlife Refuges (+ $22 million to $345 million), Indian Health Service (+ $30million to $2.4 billion), Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Operation of Indian Programs(+ $10 million to $1.7 billion), BIA education (+ $6 million to $508 million), andweatherization grants (+ $4 million to $139 million). The bill would also provide$350 million for emergency wildland firefighting (+ $200 million for the Departmentof the Interior and $150 million for the Forest Service) as a FY2001 emergencysupplemental appropriation. Major reductions include -$97 million for the ForestService, -$101 million for land acquisition, and -$80 million for new construction forland management agencies. The full House Appropriations Committee marked up the bill on May 25, 2000. No changes were made to the funding levels adopted at the Subcommittee level. TheOffice of Management and Budget has indicated that the President would veto theHouse bill in its present form. The Administration considers the funding levels to beinadequate for such areas as land acquisition, Indian programs, and energyconservation. The Interior Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the full Senate Appropriations Committee marked up the Interior bill on June 20, 2000 andJune 22, 2000, respectively. On July 18, 2000, the Senate passed the bill by a voteof 97-2. The FY2001 recommended level of $15.8 billion in total budget authorityis some $1.16 billion above the House-passed mark. The Senate recommended levelprovides increases above the House-passed levels for most of the agencies within thebill. For example: Forest Service (+ $251 million), Bureau of Indian Affairs (+ $205million), Department of Energy (+ $172.8 million), Fish and Wildlife Service (+$59.1 million), Geological Survey (+ $31.7 million), Bureau of Land Management(+ $28.1 million), and Smithsonian (+ $26.8 million). In addition, the Senate wouldprovide increases for the National Endowment for the Arts (+ $7 million) and theNational Endowment for the Humanities (+ $5 million). It should be noted that theSenate- passed total includes an FY2001 Emergency Supplemental for wildland firefighting of $240.3 million ($120.3 million for the Bureau of Land Management and$120 million for the Forest Service for hazardous fuels reduction). A House-Senate conference met on September 20 and September 21 and after further discussion between the conferees and the Administration agreed to a fundinglevel of $18.8 billion, some $3.8 billion above the FY2000 enacted level. Theconference agreement included $1.8 billion in emergency and supplemental funding($300 million above the President's request) for expenditures already incurred infirefighting and to restore areas damaged by Western wildfires. The conference alsoincluded a new Title VIII that would implement a modified version of the President'sLands Legacy Initiative over 6 years. Funding would start at a total of $1.6 billionin FY2001 ($1.2 billion for Interior Appropriations programs) and rise to $2.4 billionin FY2006. In addition, the conference provided significant increases for the IndianHealth Service (+ $214 million), Bureau of Indian Affairs programs (+ $272 million),Energy Conservation programs (+ $94.7 million), and Bureau of Land ManagementOperations (+ $66 million). (See Table 5 for the House, Senate, and Conferenceapproved funding levels.) The conference report ( H.Rept. 106-914 ) was passed by the House on October 3, 2000 by a vote of 348-69 and was passed by the Senate on October 5, 2000, by avote of 83-13. President Clinton signed H.R. 4578 into law ( P.L.106-291 ) on October 11, 2000. Table 2. Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations, FY1996 to FY2000 (budget authority inbillions of current dollars) a a These figures exclude permanent budget authorities, and reflect rescissions. From FY1991 to FY1995, Department of the Interior and Related Agencies appropriations increased by 16%, from $11.7 billion to $13.5 billion, about 4%annually. Adjusting for inflation, Interior appropriations remained essentially flatduring this period. However, the Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions andAppropriations Act of 1996 ( P.L. 104-134 ) provided funding of $12.54 billion,reducing FY1996 budget authority 9% below the FY1995 level.