Sierra Club
SC Action Daily #128
October 21, 1998
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SINE DIE: CONGRESS GOES HOME!!!!
CONGRESS ADJOURNS AFTER PASSING GIANT RIDER-LADEN BUDGET BILL
TAKE ACTION: WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR ON THE SPENDING BILL!!
GLOBAL WARMING: NEW POLL SHOWS SUPPORT FOR ACTION
WORKING ON A CAMPAIGN FOR THE SIERRA CLUB: MAKING IT A GOOD EXPERIENCE
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SINE DIE: CONGRESS GOES HOME
Heave a deep sigh of relief, the 105th Congress has adjourned Sine Die and
will not return to do more harm to the environment until the new Congress
convenes on Jan 6th. They may come in for impeachment hearings, but no
other
legislative business will be conducted. The following is as good a report
as
we can pull together about what is in and out of the Omnibus budget bill.
We
will do more on this later in the week or early next week as our community
gets a chance to wade through the 40 pound monstrosity.
Many of you may have a chance to talk to various campaigning politicians
over
the next few weeks, potentially even Vice President Gore. If you do have
the
opportunity to deliver a message to any elected official, particularly the
President, the Vice President, or House or Senate Leadership, please try
to
convey the following short basic message about the budget bill and the
anti-environmental riders:
"This was a fatally flawed process, that yielded a terribly flawed bill,
it
must not happen again next year."
=====================================================
Below is the Sierra Club's press statement on the budget bill:
CONGRESS ADJOURNS AFTER PASSING GIANT BUDGET BILL WITH ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL
RIDERS
The 105th Congress adjourned today after passing a giant omnibus spending
package containing many anti-environmental riders. The bill was thousands
of
pages long and weighed forty pounds. Members of Congress did not even
know
many of the details of the bill they voted on. In the words of Senator
Byrd
of West Virginia, "Only God knows what's in this monstrosity!"
Despite the hard fought efforts of the Clinton Administration, a number of
destructive anti-environmental riders remain buried in the final $520
billion
budget bill, which the House passed last night on a 333-95 vote. The
Senate
passed the bill this morning on a 65-29 vote, and President Clinton signed
the bill into law today.
"The leadership of this Congress has once again turned a deaf ear to the
American people who -- by a large majority -- want our wild lands
protected
from development and want cleaner air and water. We oppose this bill and
we
oppose this way of doing business," Sierra Club Executive Director Carl
Pope
explained. Pope characterized the leadership of the 105th Congress as
"sneaks who worked in backrooms and used legislative riders to erode and
weaken the laws that protect our environment. To them we say 'Good-bye
and
good riddance.'"
After two years of doing nothing to protect America's environment, the
105th
Congress spent its final days trying to push through provisions that would
clearcut National Forests, punch roads through wildlife refuges, and kill
initiatives to curb global warming.
"The Clinton Administration's efforts to clean up the worst provisions
amounted to damage control, but still produced a bill full of unacceptable
anti-environmental provisions. And the sad fact that these negotiations
occurred at the end of the legislative process -- after the bills were
already larded with scores of anti-environmental riders -- meant the final
outcome would inevitably include compromises damaging to the environment,"
Pope explained. "This is a flawed process and it led to a deeply flawed
product. That's why we're asking the President to begin the next Congress
with a declaration that he will have no tolerance for anti-environmental
riders."
"While this budget bill includes some good news -- increased funding for
clean water, land acquisition and addressing the problem of global warming
--
we oppose the bill because it still contains riders that do serious harm
to
the environment," concluded Pope.
The Rundown on Riders:
Those destructive riders include, but certainly aren't limited to:
· the Quincy Logging Bill, which will double the timber cut in three
National
Forests in California's Sierra Nevada mountains
· a provision that prevents the Interior Department from requiring
companies
to repair damage to lands they have mined
· a measure that betrays the Clean Air Act by mandating a four year delay
in
the phase-out of the pesticide Methyl Bromide, a chemical that has serious
health effects and contributes to ozone depletion
· an item that would allow grazing on 25 million acres of public lands
without environmental review
· a provision that worsens pollution and speeds global warming by
preventing
the Department of Transportation from improving fuel economy standards
· a provision that limits E.P.A.'s ability to enact new programs to curb
global warming pollution
· a provision which limits the environmental review process and
facilitates
building a new toll road through pristine wildlands in Orange County
California
There were also a few wins for the environment and many other attacks on
the
environment were stripped from the bill with the help of the
Administration
and environmental leaders in Congress. The good news is:
. a provision to allow helicopters in Alaska's wilderness was stripped
from
the bill
. a provision was stripped that put the brakes on salmon restoration
efforts in the northwest by requiring congressional approval for changes
in
dam operations
· A provision was stripped from the bill that would grant officials of the
International Monetary Fund the power to tell Third World countries which
environmental laws to eliminate as "trade barriers." The Democratic
Leadership The Democratic Leadership (Reps. Gephardt and Bonior) teamed
up
with members of the Foreign Operations Approps Committee (Pelosi and Obey)
to strip language from the bill that would have made the IMF judge, jury,
and executioner of international trade agreements
· The final bill softened language that would have barred the EPA from
dredging river bottoms to protect us from PCBs
· Congress reinstated the contraceptive coverage bill that requires most
federal health plans covering prescription drugs to also cover
prescription
contraceptive drugs and devices
· Language was stripped from the bill that would have required parental
consent/notification language for teens seeking contraception at Title X
clinics
· The anti-democratic Mexico City Global Gag Rule which punishes
non-governmental organizations for lobbying or speaking about abortion
with
their own funds was stripped from the bill
· Many other anti-environmental riders were neutralized or greatly
improved
during negotiations including provisions that would punch a road through
the
Chugach forest in Alaska, regulate fishing in Glacier Bay in Alaska, and
mandate huge increases in logging in the Tongass.
We want to thank all Sierra Club activists who have worked to oppose the
riders!! Your postcards to the White House, calls to Congress and letters
to
the editor helped send a strong message that we oppose sneak attacks on
our
environment. Indeed, many attacks were successfully fended off, thank
you!!!!
SAMPLE LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Dear Editor:
Like most Americans, I've been pretty fed up with Congress for quite a
while
now. But the last few days of the Congress were downright embarrassing.
After an entire year of doing essentially nothing, the Congress rushed in
the
final hours before their adjournment to pass a massive budget bill to keep
the government running. None of our elected representatives knew what was
in
the 4,000 page, 40 pound bill when they voted on it, and it could be
months
before average American citizens find out what damage was done.
Take the environment, for example. This Congress has spent two years
trying
to undercut environmental laws, but they were not successful using the
regular legislative process. The public does not support their extreme
anti-environmental agenda. So in the final days of Congress, many of
these
unpopular measures were loaded into the massive budget bill and pushed
through without any debate.
The Clinton administration made valiant efforts to remove many of the
anti-environmental provisions from the spending bill. But there so many
in
the bill that it was inevitable that some would slip through. Included in
the bill are provisions that would sacrifice many of California's last
remaining ancient forests to the chainsaws, and open up our fragile
Florida
coasts to real estate developers.
In short, this Congress just doesn't get it. Americans want to see the
environment protected, not sold to the highest bidder. This is no way to
run
a government. I urge my fellow citizens to send a message to the Congress
on
election day -- no more special interest politics. Protect our
environment,
for our families, for our future.
Sincerely,
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GLOBAL WARMING: NEW POLL SHOWS SUPPORT FOR ACTION
Americans Strongly Support Pollution Curbs
According to a poll released yesterday (10/20/98) by the World Wildlife
Fund,
nearly eight out of 10 Americans support the Kyoto Protocol on climate
change
and a strong majority believes the United States should act to cut its
greenhouse gas emissions regardless of what other nations do.
The poll, conducted for WWF by the Mellman Group surveyed 1,000 registered
voters around the country. By an overwhelming bipartisan majority, 79
percent of the voters said they favored an international agreement to
reduce
the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
By political affiliation, 84 percent of the Democrats, 79 percent of the
independents and 73 percent of the Republicans surveyed said they would
support a treaty to reduce CO2 emissions.
More than one-third of the voters surveyed--34 percent--said they thought
the
Kyoto Protocol should be strengthened, while 66 percent said the US should
act unilaterally to reduce domestic CO2 emissions, regardless of what
other
countries do.
An even larger majority--71 percent--said they disapproved of
Congressional
efforts to block the EPA from implementing domestic carbon pollution
reduction programs.
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