Office of the Secretary

For Immediate Release: Monday, February 2, 1998

Contact: Mary Helen Thompson (202) 208-6416

President Clinton’s Fiscal Year 1999 budget of $8.1 billion for the U.S. Department of the Interior represents his unswerving commitment to the American people to balance the federal budget while protecting the environment. The FY 1999 request calls for increase of

$491 million, or 6 % over the 1998 enacted budget, excluding the one-time special Land and Water Conservation Act appropriation provided in 1998.

Priority initiatives include insuring safe visits to public lands, protecting endangered species and acquiring and protecting important habitat, and supporting implementation of the Administration’s Clean Water and Watershed Restoration Initiative. Other high priority areas of the Clinton administration budget include funding on-going environmental restoration projects, such as the Everglades, California Bay Delta and Pacific Northwest Forests, supporting Indian education and improving law enforcement in Indian country.

“As President Clinton so eloquently and accurately stated in his State of the Union message last week, there are a mere 700 days that separate us from the year 2000, that symbolic threshold to the future,” Interior Secretary Babbitt stated. “This budget clearly recognizes the importance of preserving and restoring America’s natural and cultural heritage for future generations of Americans by linking the people, land and water in the twenty-first century. Our waterways, wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, reservations and parks will continue to receive the care that they so richly deserve.”

Land and Water Facilities Restoration

The protection of the nation’s natural and cultural resources for the benefit of all Americans is the prevailing theme throughout the FY 1999 Interior Department budget. A key component slated for a significant increase are projects associated with the administration’s initiative to insure safety on federal lands for visitors and employees alike. It will allow the National Park Service (NPS), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to begin to target the most important construction and/or maintenance projects. This represents the first step in a five year effort to improve crumbling infrastructure and overall maintenance of important public facilities. The $546 million earmarked for maintenance represents an increase of $82 million. Park Service spending for repair and rehabilitation projects and cyclic maintenance will more than double. The 1999 budget estimates that fees collected by selected parks within the NPS totaling $136 million will also remain in the park system for much needed renovation.

The 1999 request of $213.6 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) will continue to preserve pristine areas for the benefit of the American public. Over the next five years, the administration will allocate nearly $1.9 billion between the Interior Department and The Forest Service for land purchases. Priority acquisitions in 1999 will include important tracts in the Everglades, New England, Southern California and the Mississippi Delta and elsewhere.

The FY 1999 Budget targets several significant on-going environmental restoration projects for continued support: the Everglades, the California Bay Delta and the Forests of the Pacific Northwest, and the Columbia Basin.

The historic effort to restore the Everglades and reverse the ecological decline of the South Florida Ecosystem is in the second year of an extraordinary four year $400 million Department of the Interior initiative lead by Vice President Gore. The Clinton administration is requesting $144.2 million for Interior agencies, an increase of $7.7 million over the 1998 enacted budget. Over all, total federal funds devoted to Everglades Restoration are $282 million, an increase of $54 million or 24 % over 1998.

Another example is the restoration of the largest estuary on the west coast of North America--the California Bay Delta. A consortium of federal, state and local agencies and other parties are in the third year of developing long-term comprehensive strategies to solve the complex and interrelated problems in the Bay-Delta. The Department’s 1999 Budget includes a total of

$143 million for ecosystem restoration funds, an increase of $58 million over the previous year.

The President’s Forest Plan, now into its sixth year, continues to be a priority for the Administration. It has been a key component in helping state and local governments balance preservation of the environment with timber harvest production. The FY 1999 Interior budget funds the Forest Plan at $68.1 million. The BLM will offer 213.5 million board feet of timber for sale in the region during 1999.

Patterned on the Forest Plan for the Pacific Northwest, the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Plan is a Clinton Administration program jointly administered by the Interior Department and the Forest Service to develop a scientifically sound management strategy for federal lands in counties east of the Cascades. The Department’s FY 1999 request for this effort is $8.3 million.

Clean Water, a gift to future generations

In October of 1997 , Vice President Gore announced an aggressive set of Clean Water initiatives to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act. The Vice President’s initiative has set in motion several interagency programs to protect and improve the nation’s rivers, lakes and streams. Since its inception, the Clean Water Act has doubled the number of waterways that are safe for swimming and fishing.

“Clean water and watershed restoration is a partnership effort,” Babbitt stated. “The only way you can have a successful outcome is to forge an alliance between all stakeholders including state and local government officials, land owners both large and small, and public interest organizations. Just as all parts of a watershed are related, so must all residents of that watershed be part of restoration efforts.”

The administration is requesting that Interior, along with the Departments of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency, develop community based watershed management enhancement partnerships with the states to further improve the nation’s water. Increases in the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Geological Survey, the Office of Surface Mining, Fish and Wildlife Service and BIA will support this effort. A primary goal is to develop a strategy to achieve a net gain of up to 100,000 acres of wetlands by 2005, and to insure that federal lands are national models and laboratories for effective watershed planning and controls.

The Office of Surface Mining Clean Streams initiative which has been operating for several years is an extraordinary example of a clean water partnerships have helped to improve thousands of miles of Appalachian streams polluted by years of contaminated runoff from abandoned coal mines. The administration is asking $6.9 million which will provide the seed money to initiate approximately 23 more projects in 1999.

Protecting Species and Habitats for the Future

The Administration is requesting $129.9 million to support the efficient and effective implementation of the Endangered Species Act, an increase of $38.8 million. This includes increased funds for the development and support of up to 100 Habitat Conservation Plans (HCP). The HCP program is an extraordinary example of how creative partnerships can result in successful solutions, protecting species while allowing economic development to proceed. The Administration’s budget includes expanded support for HCPs in 1999 and $5.0 million for development of another innovative Clinton administration pilot program called Safe Harbor Agreements which allows for the development of species preservation agreements on private property including both large and small landowners.

Operation of the 93 million acre National Wildlife Refuge System is a key element in the FY 1999 budget, with 223 new projects in 152 refuges being planned the coming year. The budget includes an operations increase of $15 million, or 8%, to address the highest priority operational needs and $10.9 million for maintenance improvements..

Other important increases in the 1999 budget include funds for the Fish and Wildlife Service to work with the hydropower industry and local communities to improve fish passage at dams and a significant increase for an expanded fuels management/prescribed fire program to improve forest ecosystems and to ensure public health and safety.

Building Trust with Tribes

The FY 1999 Bureau of Indian Affairs budget of $1.84 billion is $142.1 million above the 1998 enacted budget. Improvement of Indian education and school facilities is a major budgetary priority this year. BIA anticipates that school population will increase by over 1500 in the next school year. Increases of $64.4 million will provide the teachers and other resources to meet this increase, as well as to reconstruct three out-of-date and unsafe schools and repair a number of others.

Public safety and law enforcement on reservations are also of critical concern to the tribes. A DOI/DOJ Initiative on Law Enforcement in Indian Country will provide an increase of

$182 million in new or redirected funds within DOJ and BIA in FY 1999.

Overhaul of the trust management system is an essential part of the BIA and Office Special Trustee budgets, with $9.6 million proposed for implementation of the trust management improvement project and for elimination of probate and land records processing backlog.

Protecting our National Treasures for the Ages

“President Clinton, in his State of the Union Message, called on all Americans to save our historic treasures so that generations of the 21st century could see for themselves the images that define our collective heritage,” Babbitt concluded. To preserve this rich fabric of American history, a new White House proposal, the $50 million “Millennium” grant program is designed to help preserve much of the nation’s significant historic papers, records, films, buildings, objects and historic districts that are in need of preservation. The funds will be made available to state and federal agencies under the auspices of the National Historic Preservation Act .

In addition, a $9.8 million increase in the Historic Preservation Fund is proposed to address the most critical repairs at historically black colleges and universities, for a total of $15.4 million.

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