Anchorage Daily News (Published July 21, 2000)

By David Whitney 
Daily News Washington Bureau

Washington -- The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee began slogging through a bill to reallocate $3 billion a year from offshore oil drilling into parks, wildlife protection and coastal assistance, but the panel's only vote Thursday revealed weak Republican support.

The bill is enormously popular among recreationists, wildlife advocates and states because it would automatically dispense money for new parks and sports fields, wildlife conservation, coastal habitat restoration and payments to states in lieu of property taxes on federal lands.

Alaska would get about $164 million a year under the bill.

Republican conservatives who dominate the energy committee's majority worry it would put more private land in federal ownership. They also objected to what they see as a budget gimmick, allocating the money outside the normal appropriations process.

Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski, the panel's Republican chairman, worked out the compromise last week with committee Democrats, and they pledged to cooperate to keep the package from unraveling.

This has aligned Murkowski, who generally sides with Western Republican conservatives, in the camp of Democrats. On Thursday they were fighting any congressional tinkering with how the bulk of the money would be spent each year.

In an 11_8 vote, the committee rejected an amendment that would have required that every dollar of spending in the bill go through normal congressional processes. Murkowski and the Democrats said that would essentially gut the bill's goal of guaranteed funding.

The amendment was offered by Sen. Don Nickels of Oklahoma, the assistant Republican leader of the Senate, and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R_N.M.

Nickels cited provisions in the bill that would allocate $75 million for urban parks, $50 million for urban forestry and $350 million for wildlife conservation.

"I support wildlife conservation, but I think it should be subject to appropriations and not turned into an entitlement," Nickels said. "You turn it into an entitlement, and Congress loses control. This bill cedes control to the administration more than any other measure I've seen."

"I am not going to dispute your contentions," Murkowski replied.

But Murkowski said the measure has built-in checks against the administration and whether senators support them depends on whether they believe offshore drilling revenues should be used to enhance ongoing conservation and state assistance programs.

"These are entitlements, make no mistake about it," Murkowski declared. "But they have substantive balance."

Only one other Republican, Sen. Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois, who did not attend the meeting and voted by proxy, joined Murkowski and all nine committee Democrats in voting down the amendment.

Murkowski later said that he was not surprised by the lopsided vote.

"It was a killer amendment," Murkowski said. If it had been approved, all the funding would be at the mercy of the annual budget process.

Conservative property rights advocates who are aggressively lobbying against the compromise measure saw Thursday's lone vote as an indication that as few as three of the 11 Republican committee members will support the final bill.

"This bill is a big money grab and a big land grab," said Mike Hardiman, lobbyist for the American Land Rights Association. "That's not what Republicans used to stand for."

Thursday's meeting was cut short by the bill's critics invoking for a third day a Senate rule limiting the time committees can meet.

At times, the pressure on Murkowski seemed evident. During discussion of a pending amendment to limit federal property buys in states where it already owns 25 percent of the land -- potentially the most difficult of the votes facing the Alaskan -- Murkowski leaned his head back in his chair, his neck taut, as if he were appealing for higher strength.

The committee will resume work today on more than a dozen more Republican amendments.

Reporter David Whitney can be reached at dwhitney@adn.com.

WHAT SENATORS HAD TO SAY
The Associated Press

Supporters:
"This legislation provides a dependable level of funding to several very important federal programs," said Sen. Frank Murkowski, R-Alaska. "This won't be some unfettered slush fund for the administration."

"By linking all of our rafts together, we can assure funding of programs that didn't receive funding under the regular appropriations process," said Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.

"It is not some sort of sinister federal land grab," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. "I see this as another tool in the toolbox."

Critics:
"On the surface, it seems like good policy," said Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont. "Under the surface of everything, hidden on the dark side of government, is that government ownership of land has not been all that successful."

"I don't want to enshrine the notion that public ownership (of land) makes this country great. It does not. It is private ownership that makes this country great," said Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.

"The most vibrantly alive land today as it relates to young and growing and vibrant trees and wild habitat are state and private forests," said Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho. "Is it by accident? Not at all."

"This plan puts these programs on automatic pilot and gives these spending priorities special priority at the expense of other important priorities," said Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M. "I don't know how we're going to run the government if everybody figures out this ingenious process because everybody can do that with their specialties."

"Now that we've got a surplus, boy is that money burning a hole in our pocket. We can't spend it fast enough," said Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash. "I'm almost breathless with what might happen under this bill."

Be informed! Don't allow yourself to be snowed by CARA.