Our actions today determine our future!
The federal budget offers an annual opportunity for the nation to set its priorities for the future. Ensuring adequate protection for our environment requires increasing resources for environmental activities and shifting the pattern of spending from resource exploitation to restoration. In addition, budget bills need to be kept free of proposals to weaken environmental standards, which are often slipped in behind closed doors and without public participation.
Unfortunately, the Bush administration's plan calls for starving a range of programs that would protect clean air and water, promote clean sources of energy, and save endangered species and our parks and public lands. Specifically, the Bush budget for next year (Fiscal Year 2003) cuts overall environmental spending by about $1 billion, dropping from $29 billion to $28 billion. The proposed cuts in the future are even more alarming. Figures provided by the White House show that over the next five years total funding for environmental programs would fall $14 billion (-8.8%) below the level needed just to maintain today's level of services.
Now the Republican-led House has followed the Bush lead by passing a budget blueprint, called a budget resolution, which endorses these reductions. Fortunately, the Senate Budget Committee, controlled by Democrats, has voted to restore environmental protection by approving an alternative budget that rejects these cuts.
Cleaning up the Polluters
- EPA's environmental activities should be expanded, not reduced, but the President's budget seriously squeezes the agency's resources.
- The number of people available to enforce air and water pollution laws would be slashed by over 200 or 14% compared to FY 2001;
- Water quality investments would be sliced by $524 million from this year's level, including reductions in loans to states for sewage plants and grants for dealing with pollution runoff into lakes and streams.
- The funding situation is worsened by the continued expiration of the polluter's tax that was meant to pay for the Superfund toxic waste program. Now the future of abandoned toxic dumps is in doubt because this special cleanup fund is running our of money, even while hundreds of millions of dollars a year in taxpayer money are diverted to pay for the industry's share of the cleanup.
Saving America the Beautiful
- We also need to increase efforts to conserve the natural resources of our great nation, many of which are threatened with irreversible damage. As an alternative to the Bush budget, the environmental community has identified certain critical activities that deserve funding increases totaling about $1 billion:
- Full funding should be provided for a new conservation trust fund established by Congress to provide dedicated money for land acquisition, coastal and ocean protection, and wildlife preservation (the Land Conservation, Preservation, and Infrastructure Improvement Act). However, the Bush budget proposes to cut his fund by $256 million from its approved level and would begin to dismantle an important piece of it, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, by using it to pay for unrelated programs.
- Support for the operation of our national parks, which are under increasing pressure from rising visitation, should be significantly increased by $311 million next year to maintain and improve our park experience.
Funding for the National Wildlife Refuge System, which is about to celebrate its centennial year, should be doubled and efforts to save endangered wildlife should be greatly boosted by adding $598 million to the Department of Interior.
Securing Clean Energy
Finally, the nation needs to invest much more in clean energy solutions that will increase our energy security while reducing dangerous pollution. However, the Bush administration would cut Department of Energy programs that support clean domestic sources of energy like solar, geothermal, biomass and energy efficiency another $58 million. The harm of this move away from a clean energy policy for America is compounded by a proposed loss of $501 million in the main Department of Transportation effort for addressing the effects of air pollution, the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program.
A Free Ride for Special Interests
For the last several years, Congress has been using the budget process as a way of rewarding special interests with special handouts, called riders, which often have nothing to do with the bill to which they are added. Riders are frequently attached to these bills in secretive manner – literally late at night or in closed meetings, without the public being brought into the discussion. In the past, such riders have been used to promote overcutting of national forests, threaten endangered species, undermine efforts to combat climate change, weaken air and water pollution laws, and endanger the safety of our food. Congress should put a stop to this practice once and for all and bring democracy back to the environmental debate.
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