Anchorage Daily News – September 30, 2000 
CARA SUPPORTERS FIGHT TO SALVAGE ORIGINAL PLAN 
By David Whitney Daily News Washington Bureau

Washington -- Groups advocating enactment of the Conservation and Reinvestment Act said Friday they are opposed to a watered-down version added to an appropriations bill this week and will fight for the original $45 billion, 15-year entitlement program.

"Reports of the demise of CARA are premature," said Thomas J. Cove, vice president of governmental affairs for the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.

Cove and other backers of the legislation sponsored by Alaska Rep. Don Young and Sen. Frank Murkowski were reacting to actions by congressional appropriators Thursday to provide much of the bill's conservation funding but without the specific directions and certainty that the money would ever be spent.

Under the deal organized by Washington Rep. Norm Dicks, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Interior subcommittee, $12 billion would be spent over the next six years for land acquisition, parks expansion and maintenance, wildlife, coastal assistance and other programs.

But unlike the Young-Murkowski legislation, the money would be subject to annual review and approval by House and Senate appropriations committees, without any assurance that the money would go where pledged.

Critics of the appropriations provision pointed to the text of Thursday's deal that said "the program is not mandatory and does not guarantee annual appropriations."

"The House and Senate committees on appropriations have discretion in the amounts to be appropriated each year," the report on the Dicks provision said.

The Dicks provision is part of a compromise 2001 spending bill for the Interior Department that was completed late Thursday. It could come up for a vote in the House as soon as Monday.

Stopping it will be tricky. With Congress in a rush to adjourn for the fall political campaign, rounding up enough votes to derail the spending package will be problematic.

The deal seemed to get the endorsement of the White House on Friday.

George Frampton, head of the president's Council on Environmental Quality, described the Dicks deal as "an historic breakthrough in conservation funding."

"In our view, this is a fantastic step forward," Frampton said.

Both Young and Murkowski denounced the deal Friday, and the hastily arranged press conference of CARA supporters was intended to demonstrate the broad popular support behind the bill. More than 5,000 organizations, ranging from the National Governors Association to the state wildlife agencies and sporting goods manufacturers, are backing CARA.

"What we're seeing here is the power of appropriators to prevent the will of the people," said R. Max Peterson, executive vice president of the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

Steven Hansen, spokesman for the House Resources Committee that Young leads, said the Alaska Republican was disappointed by the appropriations committee deal.

"Their goal was to kill CARA," Hansen said. "It is unfortunate that legislation that received 315 votes in the House was killed by a very small group of people."

In a separate statement, Murkowski, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, accused the appropriations panel of "substituting end-of-the-year smoke and mirrors for CARA."

"It is possible that none of the accounts might ever be appropriated at all," Murkowski said. "Because this program does not have formulas for state and local money, it can all be absorbed in Washington, D.C."

Congressional rules prohibit amending compromise legislation agreed to by House-Senate conference committees. The best option for derailing the measure may be to organize opposition to bringing it up on the House floor.

Hansen said that Young was talking with Republican and Democratic supporters about strategy.

"Many members from both parties are extremely upset about what the appropriations committee did," Hansen said. "But the problem is time."

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

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