Late Thursday afternoon, the Senate passed the Interior Appropriation’s Bill by a vote of 83-16, which included a watered down, but still healthy version of CARA. The House passed the same compromise on Tuesday 349-69, sending the measure to the President for his signature. Many have claimed victory because the compromise only authorizes the CARA programs for six years and the funding remains subject to congressional oversight, but the fact remains, Congress caved on CARA.

The compromise authorizes many aspects of the original bill. It is a six-year, $12 billion commitment that the White House supports because it gave them more than they sought through their Lands Legacy Initiative. The environmentalists are pleased because it dramatically increases the environmental budget and authorizes many new programs.

For example, the compromise authorizes federal and state land acquisition, land and wildlife conservation, overdue maintenance on federal lands, historic preservation, urban parks, non-game species, Youth Conservation Corps and payments in lieu of taxes. The bill provides $2.5 billion more than President Clinton requested and $3.9 billion over the current funding of these programs -- more than doubling last years federal conservation spending.

Make no mistake, we still have CARA. It’s just not called CARA anymore. CARA became so volatile that everyone wanted a compromise to claim victory. The only ones not claiming victory are the original sponsors – Don Young, Frank Murkowski, Mary Landrieu and Billy Tauzin.

Some insiders are convinced the White House agreed to the Interior bill compromise because CARA was successfully stalled in the Senate. Several reports confirm western conservative Senators had the bill locked down promising to keep the bill from reaching the floor. However, in the "art" of politics, a compromise was struck allowing the Republicans to appear environmentally concerned while the appropriators were able to retain control over the purse strings.

George Frampton, head of the President’s Council on Environmentally Quality (CEQ), was the chief negotiator for the White House on CARA. He had promised Don Young and the sponsors that they supported CARA and would veto anything short of the original measure. Early this week, Frampton of CEQ dealt a devastating blow to CARA by endorsing the conference committee’s compromise in the FY2001 Interior spending bill. Immediately after the House approved the Interior bill, legislation was filed by John Dingell (D-MI) and others, including Don Young, to abolish the CEQ. It was also reported that a hold was placed on Frampton’s confirmation bid effectively forcing him to give up the post at the end of the administration.

Senator Majority Leader Trent Lott, who is a supporter of CARA, said that the 63 Senators who signed the DeWine letter supporting the passage of CARA have not given up. They have said they will attempt to attach CARA to a number of remaining appropriation’s bills. Now that Congress is expected to stay in session through next week, anything can happen. More of CARA could be passed.

Liberty Matters, the American Land Foundation and Stewards of the Range believe there is no compromise when it comes to matters of principle, property rights and liberty. There should never be a reason to compromise on a bill like CARA. The Interior version of the bill increases government acquisition of private lands and that is simply something we will never support. Diane Alden, a columnist with Newsmax.com summed it up best: "It doesn’t matter if death (of property rights) by CARA comes by slow strangulation or a quick bullet in the head, the results are the same."

This battle is far from over. Calls for victory are misleading. It is up to you to help ensure Congress adds no additional CARA like proposals to other bills. Make sure your Senators and Congressman know where you stand.
Managers Statement on CARA Compromise # 2185 (pdf)
Interior Funding Conference Report for Fiscal 2001 (pdf)
AP Article on Senate Vote # 2186 (pdf)