The Bluestem Network Action Alert as of September 11, 1999, is as follows:

Please make the following three phone calls.

For the first two phone calls, please call both U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Peter Fitzgerald and ask them to vote down the Senate Interior Appropriations Bill if Sections 329 and 117 are still attached. Be sure to tell both U.S. Senators that these two anti-environmental riders are completely unacceptable and should not be attached to an appropriations bill to ensure their passage.

For the third phone call, please call President Bill Clinton at the White House Comment Line, and ask him to veto the Interior Appropriations Bill if it still contains Sections 329 and 117 when the bill arrives to his desk. Be sure to ask him to veto any bill that contains anti-environmental riders.

You can place a call to U.S. Senator Dick Durbin in Washington at 202-224-2152 or in Chicago at 312-353-4952. You can place a call to U.S. Senator Peter Fitzgerald in Washington at 202-224-2854 or in Chicago at 312-353-5420.

This ends the Bluestem Network Action Alert.

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What follows is the detailed explanation for the Bluestem Network Action Alert.

Once again the Senate has used the appropriations process to subvert the protections afforded by the nation's environmental laws. Two anti-environmental riders attached to the Senate Interior Appropriations bill Thursday make a mockery of the laws requiring scientifically sound assessments of the environmental impacts of grazing and logging.

We must not allow the Senate to get away with sneaking these anti-environmental riders into the Interior Appropriations Bill. The Senate must be held accountable for using the appropriations process to pass extremely anti-environmental measures that could never stand alone.

Inclusion of Sections 329 and 117 should give the President good reason to veto the bill if they are not stripped by the House-Senate conferees. The Senate must understand that they cannot get away with this flagrant abuse of the legislative process to undermine the protections afforded wildlife and wildlands by our environmental laws.

The Senate will probably vote on the entire Interior Appropriations Bill (including the attached anti-environmental riders) early next week. If we cannot convince the entire Senate to reject this dangerous and flawed bill, action will move to the House-Senate conference committee where differences between the two Interior Appropriations Bills will be ironed out. Sections 329 and 117 as well as the other anti-environmental riders included this bill, should give the President a very good reason to veto the entire bill if they are not pulled out.

As has been the case in the last several years, the appropriations process is being used to pass a wide variety of anti-environmental measures that could never see the light of day on their own. If the full Senate won't, it is up to the President to stand up to this backdoor assault on our nation's wildlife and wildlands. In a close vote, an amendment by Senators Charles Robb (D-VA), Max Cleland (D-GA) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) to strike a rider allowing the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to bypass sensitive species survey requirements before making management decisions was defeated. This rider, Section 329, was particularly important after the courts forced postponement of 34 timber sales in the Pacific Northwest and others in Georgia because the Forest Service had failed to do adequate surveys of sensitive, threatened and endangered species. The timber industry gave stopping this amendment top priority and their efforts literally paid off with a number of key swing votes going against the Robb amendment. While the environmental community was forced to deal with a host of anti-environmental riders the timber industry pulled out all the stops to defeat the Robb amendment. By Friday, news media all across the country were touting headlines like "Senate vote lifts ban on logging in Georgia" (Atlanta Journal Constitution, 9/10); "Senate approves timber bill: Measure would skirt judge's ruling periling Northwest logging" Sacramento Bee 9/10; "Senate vote could ease curbs on logging" Seattle Post-Intelligencer 9/10.

The other big vote on Thursday, was on a motion to table the Durbin grazing rider amendment. Since no Senator was willing to offer an amendment to strike the very bad Sec.117 which allows the renewal of grazing permits without environmental review, the amendment by Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL)to only extend grazing permits through 2001 was the best alternative. Unfortunately the motion to table and effectively defeat the amendment passed by an overwhelming margin, 58 to 37. The grazing industry has thus convinced their champions in the U.S. Senate to launch a stealth attack on our public lands. Section 117 is a dangerously lopsided proposal that will lead to excessive grazing and prevent your participation in the sound management of our public rangelands. Section 117 is supported bythe powerful Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici and opposed by wildlife,recreation, conservation, and environmental groups nationwide. Section 117 undermines agency efforts to change current grazing practices to protect public lands and resources. Section 117 locks-in the existing grazing levels and management practices found in out-dated (soon-to-expire) grazing permits held by the industry to graze livestock on public lands, even when grazing is damaging fish and wildlife, recreation, and the environment. Section 117 makes grazing the most important use of public lands and eliminates the public's role in grazing decisions. Section 117 undercuts the Endangered Species Act, Bald Eagle Protection Act, Clean Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and other laws and thwarts longstanding efforts to improve the ecological health of public rangelands. These laws require the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to develop grazing permits that balance grazing with recreation, wildlife, and other public resources. Section 117 will damage vital wildlife and fish habitat.

This concludes the detailed explanation for the September 11, 1999 Bluestem Network Action Alert.