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 ongress has adjourned for the year, ending a session
in which it failed to act on Americans' demands to clean up pollution
and protect our remaining wild lands. In its final action, Congress
passed a federal budget that includes damaging anti-environmental
riders, although hard work by the Clinton-Gore Administration
and by Congressional environmentalists in both parties paid off
as many riders were rejected from the budget.
 "Congress
larded up the federal budget with a heap of anti-environmental
riders, and they completely failed to pass a pro-environmental
agenda this year," said Sierra Club executive director,
Carl Pope. "The first session of the 106th Congress can
be summarized in two words, 'missed opportunities.' The Congress
could justifiably called 'do nothing' for failing to take much
needed action to protect America's environment for our families,
for our future."
A quick overview
of the missed opportunities:
Fighting Sprawl: Community Open Space Bonds bill languished. This
is an innovative proposal for a federal partnership with local
communities to help them plan for smart growth and fight sprawl.
Protecting
our Wilderness: Although bills to
designate 9.1 million acres of wilderness in Utah, protect the
Northern Rockies Ecosystem, and permanently put the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge off limits to oil drilling were introduced, and
gathered a record number of cosponsors, the Congress failed to
act on them.
Protecting
our Forests: A bill to end commercial
logging of our National Forests was introduced, gaining strong
bipartisan support and a record number of sponsors, but the Congress
did not adopt the legislation, and instead pushed bills that
would further expose our National Forests to damaging logging.
Cleaning
Up Factory Farms: Legislation was
introduced to give the EPA the authority it needs to require
better management of livestock manure from large factory farms
(H.R. 684). The bill would require plans for beneficial use of
manure, prevent the siting of factory farms in ecologically vulnerable
areas, and require large meat-processing corporations, not just
the individual livestock operator, to assume responsibility for
the proper use or disposal of livestock waste. However, it has
been bottled up in committee.
Land
Legacy: Congress appropriated half
of the $900 million requested by the President to fund the Land
Legacy program. The Congress also began action on a bill that
would provide secure funding for land and wildlife protection.
Although the bill has made progress, the version pending in the
House still has troubling trade-offs that would create new incentives
for states to open their shorelines to oil drilling.
Global
Warming: Congress barred the Administration
from taking the single biggest step to curbing global warming
-- raising automotive fuel economy standards. It also blocked
the Administration from taking other needed actions.
Family
Planning: A compromise made by President
Clinton and Congressional leadership attached the "Global
Gag Rule" to the repayment of US debts to the United Nations.
The rule will bar family planning organizations abroad from receiving
US funds if they provide legal abortion services or participate
in public debates on abortion policies with their own money.
The President can waive the rule, but at the cost of reducing
the budget for international family planning services by $12.5
million.
Despite some the missed opportunities, the good news
to emerge from this Congress was a growing bipartisan "Green
Caucus" that blocked many harmful riders that would have
made existing regulations impotent and caused irreparable environmental
damage.
"As Congress shuts down for the year, the only
bright spot is that President Clinton, Vice President Gore and
pro-environmental members on both sides of the aisle were able
to keep the federal budget from being worse on the environment,"
Pope said.
"In 2000, not only will we solidify our green
caucus, but we'll add to it as Americans increasingly focus on
the environment and quality-of-life issues," Pope added.
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