©2025 League of Conservation Voters
1980 Scorecard Vote
230
164
38
Issues
H.R. 7590. Energy and Water Development Appropriations. The vote is on the Bevill motion to agree to a Senate amendment authorizing $284 million and appropriating $6 million for a flood control project in the Tug Fork river valley on the Kentucky-West Virginia border. The valley suffers from flood damages caused by strip mining and logging on the hills. But the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee had already authorized a cheaper nonstructural solution to deal with this problem. Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd ignored the actions of the authorizing committee and rammed this project through on an appropriations bill, in violation of ordinary Senate procedures. There were no hearings, no firm cost estimates, no requirement that the states pay their share of the costs. The Bevill motion endorsed the Senate action, setting a dangerous precedent. Adopted 230-164. September 24, 1980. NO is the correct vote.
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