PRESIDENT BUSH SIGNS WETLANDS ACT

President George W. Bush recently signed into law the reauthorization of the North American Wetlands Conservation Act. It's purpose is to encourage voluntary partnerships among public agencies and the private sector to conserve North American wetland ecosystems. It establishes an infrastructure and provides a source of funding to accomplish that end. The Act funds the protection, restoration, management and enhancement of a wetland ecosystem to benefit wetland-dependent wildlife.

According to President Bush, "Today we take important action to conserve North America's wetlands, which will help keep our water clean and help provide habitat for hundreds of species of wildlife. Through this legislation, the federal government will continue its partnership with landowners, conservation groups and states to save and improve millions of acres of wetlands. The North American Wetlands Conservation Reauthorization Act shows our concern for the environment and our respect for future generations of Americans. "With this signature today, the North American Wetlands Conservation Act will be reauthorized for five years. The law authorizes federal money to match donations from sportsmen, state wildlife agencies, conservationists and landowners. Since 1991, more than $462 million in federal grants have helped to encourage $1.3 billion in contributions from others."

"Together these funds have restored streams and rivers, re-established native plants and trees, acquired land that is home to more than a third of America's threatened and endangered species. Because about 75 percent of the wetlands are held privately, we need to encourage cooperation with our landowners. This legislation shows that when government, landowners and conservationists work together, we can make dramatic progress in preserving the beauty and the quality of our environment." Bush also thanked the Congress for supporting this legislation.

Proposed projects are ranked by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's North American Wetlands Conservation Council. Selected, prioritized proposals are recommended to the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission for consideration of funding. Membership consists of the Secretary of the Interior, who serves as Chairman; the Secretaries of Transportation and Agriculture; two Members of the Senate (one is Senator Thad Cochran); and two Members of the House of Representatives. The Commission is authorized to approve, reject or reorder the priority of the proposed projects.

Press Briefing - June 5, 2002
"Q Ari, if I could change subjects for a second. This morning you said that the President quoted a speech, indicating that the President believes that human activity is largely responsible for the increase in greenhouse gases. But I'm wondering if he also agrees with an EPA report which indicated that human activity is likely the cause of global warming?

MR. FLEISCHER: Let me just read from the President's statement of June 11th on global warming, and let me read from the recent report the EPA submitted to the United Nations. And I think you'll hear that on the key issues, they really sound very, very similar. This is the President on June 11th in the Rose Garden, in a speech where he announced his global warming policies.

"Concentration of greenhouse gases, especially C02, have increased substantially since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. And the National Academy of Sciences indicate that the increase is due in large part to human activity." That's the President himself speaking.

Here is from the report, page 4, that was just submitted to the United States by the EPA: "Greenhouse gases are accumulating in Earth's atmosphere as the result of human activities, causing global mean surface temperature and subsurface ocean temperature to rise. While the changes observed over the last several decades are due most likely to human activities, we cannot rule out that some significant part is also a reflection of natural variability." And I think what you're hearing is the same thing.

Q I'm glad you make the connection explicitly, since the President addressed greenhouse gases, but not specifically global warming. Does the President agree with the conclusion that human activity is likely the cause of global warming?

MR. FLEISCHER: When the President cites the National Academy of Science as saying that the National Academy of Science indicates that the increase is due in large part to human activity, I don't know how the President could say it more specifically than that.

MR. FLEISCHER: No. Here's -- the bottom line for the President is, number one, he has made a proposal that he believes is a proposal that not only can reduce the problem of greenhouse gases and global warming, but also protects the American economy, so the American economy can lead the world in technological and scientific advances that also have an effect in reducing pollution.

The President has said, citing the National Academy of Sciences, that the increase is due in large part to human activity. The President has also continued, citing both, now this report the EPA has sent to the United Nations, previous evidence from the National Academy of Sciences, that there's uncertainty -- and the recent report notes that there is considerable uncertainty. That's the state of science, and the President agrees with it. I don't think people dispute that.

MR. FLEISCHER: Again, when the President cites a report by the National Academy of Sciences that indicates the increase is due in large part to human activity, I think you have two reports that are very similar.

MR. FLEISCHER: I think the EPA issued a report that says the same thing. And I think the President was also reflecting about some of the way it was covered, that made it sound as if the report was somehow inconsistent with what he had said previously.

Q I don't think he reflected at all, he just said that, I saw it put out by a bureaucracy. What did he reflect on?

Texas Gov. George W. Bush has changed his tune on a key environmental issue, saying he no longer believes there's any question that the globe is warming, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports.

"I believe there is global warming," he said at a news conference last week. Mr. Bush had said just a few weeks ago that the "science is still out" on global warming. The governor, who is leading a crowded field of GOP presidential candidates, said his team of advisers had changed his mind.

"The last time I wasn't certain of the science," he said. "I've had some briefings recently and I'm becoming more convinced that the science proves there's global warming."

Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of the liberal consumer and environmental group Public Citizen, welcomed the new position.

"We are delighted that Gov. Bush is acknowledging that global warming is a problem," he said. "We would ask him to take a leadership role since Texas leads the nation in global warming."

But Texas Citizens for a Sound Economy, a conservative group that doubts global-warming theories, says Mr. Bush should take another look.

"We think there's been a lot of questionable and bad science that's been used," said the group's spokeswoman, Peggy Venable.
[End of Transcript]

"And now, a Republican administration will continue and complete the work of a Democratic administration. This is the way environmental policy should work."
George W. Bush - SOURCE

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewBusiness.asp?Page=\\Business\\archive\\200301\\BUS20030106a.html

Bush Administration 'Duped' by Jesse Jackson Event
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
January 06, 2003

(CNSNews.com) - Conservative critics of Jesse Jackson and his liberal political agenda are railing about what they see as a "terrible mistake" by two prominent Bush administration officials who have agreed to speak at Jackson's annual Wall Street fundraiser next week.

Some say the administration is being duped into participating in Jackson's event, while others say they're appalled by the participation of Bush administration officials.

Michael Powell, the Bush designated chairman of the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), and Roel Campos, the Bush appointed commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are both scheduled to appear Jan. 16 at Jackson's 6th annual Rainbow/PUSH Wall Street Project.

Powell is a Republican and the son of Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Fenimore Fisher, the deputy director of the Wall Street Project confirmed to CNSNews.com that Powell and Campos are going to appear at the awards luncheon.

Powell is scheduled to introduce NYSE chairman Richard Grasso and Campos will be a keynote speaker for the event titled "Necessities for Economic Stimulation & Parameters for Corporate Governance." The 2003 Wall Street Project is being billed as "Equity for All: Establishing the Economic Agenda for Growth" and runs from Jan. 14 -17.

Powell's office did not respond to four inquiries seeking comment, but Campos' office did confirm that the SEC commissioner would be speaking at the awards luncheon.

When asked whether the appearance of Campos at Jackson's event would amount to an endorsement of Jackson's politics, an official with the SEC who did not wish to be identified downplayed Campos' role as "very limited."

Jackson's detractors were quick to denounce the appearance of the two Bush administration officials.

"The good efforts by the Bush administration are being manipulated by Jackson in an attempt to rehabilitate his cash cow machine," said Niger Innis of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a conservative African American civil rights group.

"It is a terribly dangerous signal to send for the FCC chairman and the commissioner of the SEC to participate in any way shape or form with Jesse Jackson's endeavor," Innis told CNSNews.com.

Innis believes Jackson stokes racial controversies in order to direct corporate dollars to Jackson's friends and associates.

"Jesse Jackson's Wall Street Project helps Jesse Jackson's Wall Street friends. Certain members of the Bush administration are unknowingly being duped," Innis said.

"Michael Powell needs to know that Jesse Jackson is not on our team," Innis added.

Last October, it was Jackson who complained that Colin Powell was ''not on our team," while defending the comments of entertainer Harry Belafonte. In lambasting the Bush administration, Belafonte had described Colin Powell as the Bush administration's "house slave."

Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), called the Bush administration's involvement in the Wall Street Project "appalling." NLPC is a Washington, D.C.-based legal watchdog group that filed a formal complaint regarding Jackson's finances with the IRS in 2001.

"Jackson has a very tawdry history of using his association with government figures improperly and unethically. [They] should stay as far away from Jackson as they can possibly get," Boehm said.

The Wall Street Project is Jackson's "premiere fundraiser," Boehm said, adding that for the administration to send two members to the event "shows bad judgment."

Last year's Wall Street Project also featured at least one Bush administration official. Connie Newman, the assistant administrator for Africa from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), made an appearance.

Launched in 1997, the Wall Street Project is designed to promote minority participation in corporate America. The annual conference was once one of Jackson's proudest accomplishments, but the stock market crash and corporate accounting scandals have made Wall Street a less inviting place lately.

Financial investigations of Jackson's own organizations and the acknowledgement that he fathered a child out of wedlock may also have tarnished his image among corporate investors.

Some in the press last year commented that Jackson's Wall Street Project was notable for who was not in attendance. The New York Daily News cited the absence of Kenneth Chenault, chairman of American Express; Stanley O'Neal, president of Merrill Lynch and Richard Parsons, AOL Time Warner executive -- three of the top black executives in America. The paper also pointed out that neither New York Gov. George Pataki nor New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg attended.

In explaining the necessity for his 2003 Wall Street Project, Jackson complained in a statement that, "Workers, entrepreneurs and consumers of color in America today are not valued, respected and employed in the way that we all deserve."

The 2003 Wall Street Project is being sponsored by such corporate giants as Citigroup, Coca Cola, AOL Time Warner, Freddie Mac, AT&T, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, IBM, Kodak, Boeing and the Daimler Chrysler Corporate Fund.

they're appalled by the participation of Bush administration officials

snip

Michael Powell, the Bush designated chairman of the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), and Roel Campos, the Bush appointed commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are both scheduled to appear Jan. 16 at Jackson's 6th annual Rainbow/PUSH Wall Street Project.

Powell is a Republican and the son of Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Fenimore Fisher, the deputy director of the Wall Street Project confirmed to CNSNews.com that Powell and Campos are going to appear at the awards luncheon.

Powell is scheduled to introduce NYSE chairman Richard Grasso and Campos will be a keynote speaker for the event titled "Necessities for Economic Stimulation & Parameters for Corporate Governance." The 2003 Wall Street Project is being billed as "Equity for All: Establishing the Economic Agenda for Growth" and runs from Jan. 14 -17.

Powell's office did not respond to four inquiries seeking comment, but Campos' office did confirm that the SEC commissioner would be speaking at the awards luncheon.

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