Please call President Bill Clinton and ask him to veto Interior Appropriations Bill H.R. 2466 because of anti-environmental riders. You can call President Clinton by leaving him a message at the White House comment line at 202-456-1111.
This ends the Bluestem Action Alert.
Each year, Congress must pass spending bills by September 30 for the following fiscal year or risk a government shutdown. In recent years, powerful special interests have launched backdoor attacks on the environment by attaching anti-environmental riders to these budget bills. Through this strategy, they avoid the public scrutiny that accompanies Congressional hearings, committee approval, and subject-specific votes in the House and Senate.
The Sierra Club is working to get President Clinton to veto Interior Appropriations Bill H.R. 2466 because it contains a total of 58 riders harmful to the environment. What follows is a sample of these riders. For a complete list, call the Grassroots Environmental Effectiveness Network (GREEN) at 660-882-5123 or e-mail them at www.defenders.org/riders/riders.html.
Sec. 135 would prevent the restoration of Glen Canyon and the Colorado River. Glen Canyon, one of America's greatest natural treasures, was flooded in 1963 by the construction of Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. The dam has also caused extensive environmental damage to the Colorado River downstream. This rider would tie the hands of land managers, prevent full consideration of restoration options and prohibit meaningful scientific review of the dam.
Sec. 137 would delay efforts to reduce noise pollution in the Grand Canyon. Title II would prohibit the Secretary of the Interior from taking any action to prohibit led mining activities in the watersheds of the Current, JacksFork, and the Eleven Point Rivers in the Missouri Ozarks until June 2001.
Sec. 327 would divert 10 percent of trail funds to logging roads by calling logging a "forest health" activity.
Sec. 328 would block restoration of the Kankakee River. The Grand Kankakee Marsh was once the largest and most important freshwater ecosystems in North America providing habitat to a spectacular variety of wildlife. Today more than 95 percent of it has been drained. This rider would derail a U.S. Fish and Wildlife proposal to establish a wildlife refuge along the Kankakee River despite overwhelming support for the proposal on the part of the public.
This concludes the detailed background description for the Nov. 7, 1999 Bluestem action alert..