Liberty
Matters News Service
March 25, 2004
Park Service Ordered to Land
The General Accounting Office and Interior Department inspector general have released a report on the travel habits of U.S. Park Service revealing it had spent over $100 million since 2002 to send employees all over the globe. The report prompted Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC) and Norm Dicks (D-WA) to send a letter to Park Service Director Fran Mainella ordering her to keep her folks on the ground. "In this technology age, the service should be using teleconferencing and other means of automated communications in lieu of costly travel," the letter read. Park Service employees spent over $50 million on travel in 2002 including 470 trips abroad and $44 million was spent for travel in 2003 and the first quarter of 2004, with France being a popular destination. At the same time, the Park Service says it needs more money. So, to cut costs, it is proposing to eliminate life guards at public beaches, close entire parks on Sundays and Mondays and visitor centers on federal holidays, and completely close national parks from November through February. Pretty much eliminates the snowmobile problem in Yellowstone. Lawmakers were also angered to learn Park Service employees had commissioned four major construction projects, totaling $243 million, without obtaining the required congressional approval. John Scofield, spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee, said, "[T]he Park Service has not vetted these projects with the bill payer, which is Congress."
Park Service Jet-Setters Grounded
ESA Trumps Defense
U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway last week sided with Earthjustice and granted a temporary restraining order to keep Kaneohe Marines from conducting live-ammo training at Makua Valley, Hawaii. "Everyone acknowledges the need for military training, but in the Endangered Species Act Congress has charged the court with giving the highest priority to protecting endangered species," Mollway ruled. The judge ruled the training exercise would violate terms of a 2001 agreement between the military and Earthjustice that stipulates how many mortars the Marines are permitted to use. They had proposed using 110 60-mm mortars instead of the 36 called for in the agreement. "We would hope that they (the Marines) would reconsider their current insistence on pursuing this type of destructive training in Makua," said Earthjustice attorney David Henkin. "We really would encourage the military to rethink its strategy." Who's running this country, anyway?
Marines Barred from Makua
Ag Sec Doles Out Dough
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman made a trip to Pennsylvania Monday to hand out taxpayers' dollars for a "voluntary" conservation program to "improve western Pennsylvania's surface water quality, groundwater quality and wildlife habitat in a 16 county area," Veneman said. USDA will contribute $99 million to the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania throwing in $47 million to pay for conservation projects along 65,000 acres of cropland and pasture land. The cost of the 15-year program is estimated at $146 million and participants will receive incentive payments and cost-share assistance for installing government approved conservation practices. USDA will also provide annual rental payments for the life of the contract. Veneman also announced the interim final rule for the $15 million Conservation Innovation Grant program. "This program provides a great opportunity to promote conservation technologies. Farmers and ranchers will benefit by having new technologies to protect the environment and comply with federal, state and local regulations," Ms. Veneman said. (See the February 12 edition of Liberty Matters News Service discussing how the government altered the conservation easement contract after it had been executed.)
Ohio River Basin Conservation Gets $146M Boost
Law of the Sea Treaty Slowed Down
The United Nation's Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) was on its way to being ratified by the full U.S. Senate when a deluge of protests from angry constituents prompted them to slow the process and hold more hearings. The Treaty had been whisked through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last fall, but now the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has scheduled hearings for March 23, to make sure LOST "does not adversely affect the sovereignty of the United States," according to Chairman Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK). President Reagan recognized its threat to American sovereignty and rejected it in 1982, but then in 1994, then-U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright, signed it and Clinton sent it to the Senate where Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) was able to keep it bottled up in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This time around, proponents say it has the backing of the administration, the oil industry and environmentalists, but critics say it places too much power in the hands of the U.N. Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy, says "This accord would constitute the most egregious transfer of American sovereignty, wealth and power to the U. N. since the founding of that 'world body.'"
Inhofe Voices Doubts about Law of the Sea Treaty
Grass Roots Force Hearing on U.N. Treaty