Amendments to FY 2006 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill
06/27/05
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Senator,
The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is the political voice of the national environmental community. Each year, LCV publishes the National Environmental Scorecard, which details the voting records of Members of Congress on environmental legislation. The Scorecard is distributed to LCV members, concerned voters nationwide, and the press.
When the FY 2006 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations bill reaches the Senate floor this week, LCV urges you to oppose anti-environmental riders to the bill and support strengthening amendments. In particular, we urge you to support the following amendments:
Sununu (R-NH) – Bingaman (D-NM) Amendment to End Taxpayer Subsidies of Logging Roads in the Tongass National Forest. Taxpayer-subsidized logging in the Tongass has cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2004 alone, the Forest Service lost nearly $48 million of taxpayer money on the logging program and logging roads in the Tongass. This amendment will prevent the Forest Service from spending taxpayer dollars in FY 2006 on new road-building in America’s Rainforest.
Boxer (D-CA) Amendment to place a moratorium on EPA’s consideration of testing of pesticides on human beings. The pesticide industry is under mounting pressure to reduce the risks that pesticides pose to infants and children, but it seeks to evade these requirements by testing pesticides on human subjects, and thereby remove safety factors and other protective requirements. Unlike human testing of drugs, which has the potential to benefit test subjects or to directly improve human health, the pesticide industry’s purpose in conducting human tests is to weaken otherwise applicable health protections and to increase profits.
Support Environmental Justice for minority and low-income communities. The House passed an amendment to prohibit funds appropriated to the EPA from being used in a manner inconsistent with Executive Order 12898, which directs each federal agency to develop an environmental justice strategy “that identifies and addresses disproportionately high and adverse human health or environmental effects of its programs, policies, or activities on minority populations and low-income populations.” The Senate should also ensure that EPA takes the next steps to meet its obligations under this Executive Order, beginning with identification of minority and low-income communities that are experiencing unfairly high levels of air and water pollution and exposure to toxic waste.
In addition, we urge you to oppose any efforts to undermine wild salmon recovery in the Northwest. On May 26, 2005, a federal court in Portland threw out the Bush administration’s flawed biological opinion for the Columbia and Snake Rivers, ruling that the government’s plan could lead to continued declines of the Northwest’s wild salmon and steelhead. Please oppose any amendments that seek to overturn this important victory for salmon recovery efforts.
LCV urges you to support the three pro-environment amendments mentioned above and oppose changes to the salmon recovery decision as well as any other anti-environmental amendments. In addition, LCV is very concerned about inadequate conservation funding in the bill, including the harmful cuts to the Land and Water Conservation Fund and clean water funding. LCV’s Political Advisory Committee will consider including votes on these issues in compiling LCV’s 2005 Scorecard. For more information, please call Tiernan Sittenfeld or Barbara Elkus in my office at 202-785-8683.
Sincerely,
Deb Callahan
President, LCV
