News
Service March 4, 2003
See Land and Water Conservation Fund appropriations ...
[NL]Omnibus Package Approved
by Congress;[NL]EPA to Get $8.1 Billion in Fiscal Year 2003
The Senate approved the fiscal year 2003 omnibus spending bill (H.J. Res. 2) on
Feb. 13 immediately following passage by the House, and President Bush is
expected to sign the legislation. The bill contains 11 of 13 appropriations
bills for fiscal 2003, including funding for the Environmental Protection
Agency, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Energy, and the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers. The bill provides $8.1 billion in fiscal 2003 funding
for EPA, slightly more than the $7.9 billion received by EPA in fiscal 2002.
EPA's funding includes $1.3 billion for superfund, the same amount allotted in
fiscal 2002, and $2.1 billion for environmental programs and management, a $64
million increase from the Bush administration request and $57 million more than
fiscal 2002. Money for the clean water and drinking water state revolving funds
would remain at the same amounts, $1.35 billion and $850 million
respectively, as in fiscal 2002. Another $192 million is directed to state water
pollution grants under Section 106 of the Clean Water Act, the same amount as in
fiscal 2002. The bill also funds EPA's watershed initiative, which would fund
pilot projects for controlling water pollution on a watershed basis, at $15
million.
484 Earmarks in Measure
Included in the bill are 484
earmarks, or add-ons for individual members, to pay for water and wastewater
treatment facilities to meet Clean Water Act requirements. These earmarks total
$315 million. Also funded under the bill are the Chesapeake Bay Program at $22.6
million; the Great Lakes National Program Office at $16 million; the National
Estuary Program at $24.5 million; and the Toxics Release Inventory right-to-know
program at $14.7 million. Air pollution grants under Sections 103 and 105 of the
Clean Air Act total $225 million under the bill. The bill also includes a
provision agreed to by the Senate calling for a National Academies study on the
health and environmental effects of EPA's rule to exempt certain power plants
from the new source review requirements under the Clean Air Act. The compromise
language is weaker than that offered by Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), who had
wanted to delay the effective date of the EPA rule until the study was
completed. The conference report directs EPA to commission a National Academies
review of the Dioxin Assessment, if the Interagency Working Group looking
into the toxicological questions does not complete its work within 60 days of
enactment of the omnibus bill.
No Increased Spending for Brownfields
The first round of funding for the brownfields program under the Small Business
Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act (P.L. 107-118) enacted in
January 2002 would be about $90 million, less than half the authorized level of
$200 million and roughly the same as levels allocated in the past several years.
The new law was designed to provide liability relief to small
businesses and to help promote the redevelopment of sites that have been
contaminated by previous industrial activity. According to a congressional
source, since enactment of the
brownfields law, EPA has received applications for more than 1,000 assessment
and
cleanup grants. However, the source said, under the level of funding it will
receive, EPA will only be able to award about 150 grants.
Energy Department Appropriations
The Department of Energy will receive $20.9 billion, which is $920 million more
than what was appropriated in fiscal 2002. This includes $422 million for
renewable energy resources, up $26 million from fiscal 2002. Another $460
million will go to the development of Yucca Mountain as a repository for nuclear
waste. This is an increase of $85 million over fiscal 2002 and $130 million less
than the Bush administration's request. The Energy Department's environmental
cleanup programs will receive $7.44 billion, an increase of $310 million over
fiscal 2002.
Interior Department, Army Corps
The legislation also would fund the Department of the Interior at $19.1 billion,
which is $400 million less than the request and $100 million less than the
amount appropriated in fiscal 2002.
This includes $83 million for the Everglades restoration project, $413 million
for state and federal land acquisition under the Land and Water Conservation
Fund, and $2.1 billion for wildland fire management. The omnibus package also
includes $4.63 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, which is $457 million
over the budget request and $28 million below fiscal year 2002 enacted levels.
The $457 million includes projects added by Congress that the administration
generally opposes. The corps budget has been criticized for containing projects
whose cost exceeds their benefits and that are not considered to be
environmentally friendly.
Copyright (c) 2003 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington D.C.