On August 2, 2005, H.R. 2361 , the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for FY2006, was enacted as P.L. 109-54 . The law contained a total of $26.20 billion for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. The law also contained $1.50 billion in supplemental funds to cover a shortfall in veterans health care resources. On December 30, 2005, H.R. 2863 was signed into law as P.L. 109-148 . The law affected funding levels enacted in P.L. 109-54 , through rescissions and emergency supplemental funds, which are not reflected in this report. The FY2006 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations law included funding for agencies and programs in three separate federal departments, as well as numerous related agencies and bureaus. The law provided funding for Department of the Interior (DOI) agencies (except for the Bureau of Reclamation, funded in Energy and Water Development appropriations laws), many of which manage land and other natural resource or regulatory programs. The law also provided funds for agencies in two other departments: for the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture, and the Indian Health Service in the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as funds for the Environmental Protection Agency. Further, the FY2006 law included funding for arts and cultural agencies, such as the Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, National Endowment for the Arts, and National Endowment for the Humanities, and for numerous other entities and agencies. In recent years, the appropriations laws for Interior and Related Agencies provided funds for several activities within the Department of Energy (DOE), including research, development, and conservation programs; the Naval Petroleum Reserves; and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. However, at the outset of the 109 th Congress, these DOE programs were transferred to the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees covering energy and water, to consolidate jurisdiction over DOE. At the same time, jurisdiction over the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and several smaller entities, was moved to the House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees covering Interior and Related Agencies. This change resulted from the abolition of the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies, which previously had jurisdiction over EPA. In the recent past, Interior and Related Agencies appropriations acts typically contained two primary titles providing funding. Title I provided funds for Interior agencies, and Title II contained funds for other agencies, programs, and entities. The FY2006 appropriations law contained three primary titles providing funding. This report is organized along the lines of the law. Accordingly, the first section (Title I) provides information on Interior agencies; the second section (Title II) discusses EPA; and the third section (Title III) addresses other agencies, programs, and entities funded in the FY2006 law. A fourth section of this report discusses cross-cutting topics that encompass more than one agency. In general, in this report the term appropriations represents total funds available, including regular annual and supplemental appropriations, as well as rescissions, transfers, and deferrals, but excludes permanent budget authorities. Increases and decreases generally are calculated on comparisons between the funding levels enacted for FY2006, requested by the President, recommended by the House and Senate for FY2006, and appropriated for FY2005. The House Committee on Appropriations is the primary source of the funding figures used throughout the report. Other sources of information include the Senate Committee on Appropriations, agency budget justifications, and the Congressional Record . In the tables throughout this report, some columns of funding figures do not add to the precise totals provided due to rounding. Finally, some of the DOI websites provided throughout the report have not been consistently operational due to a court order regarding Indian trust funds litigation. Nevertheless, they are included herein for reference when the websites are operational. The Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill ( H.R. 2361 ) was signed into law on August 2, 2005 as P.L. 109-54 . On July 28 th , 2005, the House approved the conference agreement (410-10), and on July 29 th , 2005, the Senate agreed to the conference report (99-1). Congress also included in this law $1.50 billion in supplemental funds to cover a shortfall in veterans' health care resources. The FY2006 appropriations law provided $26.20 billion, an increase of 2% over the President's budget request for FY2006 of $25.72 billion, but a decrease of 3% below the FY2005 enacted level of $27.02 billion. The FY2006 total appropriation reflects an across-the-board rescission of 0.476% to be applied across accounts. However, it does not reflect a 1% across-the-board rescission, other rescissions, and emergency supplemental funds contained in P.L. 109-148 . Further, the figures used throughout this report do not reflect these supplemental funds or the rescissions in either law because their effect on individual agencies, programs, and activities has not yet been calculated. The FY2006 appropriations law reflected lower funding as compared to the FY2005 enacted level in areas including: $-507.1 million for the Forest Service (FS); $-294.1 million for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); $-75.8 million for the National Park Service (NPS); and $-36.4 million for the Bureau of Land Management. The FY2006 appropriations law reflected higher funding than the FY2005 enacted level in areas including $105.7 million for Indian Health Service; $31.5 million for the United States Geological Survey (USGS); $12.5 million for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA); and $10.0 million total for National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). During initial consideration of H.R. 2361 , on June 29 th , 2005, the Senate passed H.R. 2361 unanimously (94-0). As passed by the Senate, H.R. 2361 would have provided appropriations of $26.26 billion for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. On May 19, 2005, the House had passed H.R. 2361 (329-89) containing $26.16 billion in FY2006 appropriations. The House-passed level was a 3% decrease from the FY2005 enacted level and a 0.4% decrease from the Senate-passed total, but a 2% increase over the President's request for FY2006. During Senate debate on H.R. 2361 , the Senate had considered about four dozen floor amendments, some of which addressed major issues and activities of agencies that are discussed in relevant sections of this report. Amendments generally not discussed in this report include those that dealt with Interior appropriations more generally or were cross-cutting in nature. Examples include an amendment to reduce each appropriation in the bill by 1.7% (withdrawn) and another to require limitations, directives, and earmarks in committee reports to be included also in conference reports in order to be regarded as having been approved by Congress (not agreed to). Still other amendments not covered in this report are those that did not relate directly to Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. Examples include an amendment seeking to facilitate family travel to Cuba (not agreed to) and an amendment providing emergency supplemental appropriations for FY2005 for the Veterans Health Administration (agreed to). During floor debate, the House considered about two dozen amendments before voting on final passage of the FY2006 appropriations bill. Many of these amendments are discussed in pertinent sections throughout this report. In some cases, the inclusion of legislation in the bill was controversial. The presiding officer sustained points of order against several provisions in the bill on the grounds that House rules bar legislation on an appropriations bill, thereby striking the provisions from the bill. These points of order were raised by chairmen of authorizing panels, namely the Chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform and the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. The inclusion in the bill of appropriations not previously authorized by law also was controversial in some instances. The Chairman of the House Resources Committee offered an amendment seeking to prevent money in the bill from being spent for 10 programs within the Committee's jurisdiction which are not authorized to be appropriated in FY2006, according to the Chairman. The presiding officer sustained a point of order against the amendment on the grounds that it too constituted legislation, so it was not in order to be considered. In earlier action, on June 10, 2005, the Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously reported (28-0) H.R. 2361 ( S.Rept. 109-80 ), providing $26.27 billion for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. On May 13, 2005, the House Appropriations Committee reported H.R. 2361 ( H.Rept. 109-80 ) with $26.16 billion in FY2006 Interior appropriations. Both the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Interior had marked up funding bills and held hearings on the President's budget request for Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. Hearings examined the requests for individual agencies and programs as well as cross-cutting issues. For FY2006, the President had sought $25.72 billion, a 5% decrease from the FY2005 enacted level of $27.02 billion. The FY2005 total reflects two across-the-board rescissions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act for FY2005 ( P.L. 108-447 ) of 0.594% and 0.80%.