Posted on 07/17/2002 7:49:45 PM PDT by RCW2001
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Arguing that the Bush administration should treat California the same as it has Florida, House lawmakers pushed through a measure supporters hoped would lead to a permanent ban on oil drilling in waters off California.
On a 252-172 vote, the House on Wednesday approved an amendment to a public lands spending bill that bans over the next year the use of any federal funds to allow new drilling activity on 36 undeveloped oil and gas leases off the California coast.
The greater goal of the measure, said Rep. Lois Capps ( news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., the chief sponsor, was to encourage the administration to protect California shores as it did recently for Florida, where President Bush ( news - web sites)'s brother Jeb is running for re-election as governor.
In May the administration announced plans to spend $120 million to buy back oil and gas rights in the Everglades and $115 million to pay oil companies to stop drilling plans in the Gulf of Mexico.
But the administration had not acted on a similar request from California's Democratic Gov. Gray Davis ( news - web sites). The administration has also urged a federal appeals court to overturn a court order halting proposed oil and natural gas exploration off California's central coast.
"The governor applauds the latest action, which clearly shows the Congress stands with Californians who oppose drilling and want to protect California's beautiful beaches," said David Chai, a spokesman for Davis.
He said the vote should also "be a strong indicator" for the federal government to buy back the leases, as it did in Florida.
The former President George H.W. Bush in 1990 put a 10-year moratorium on new leasing in federal waters off California, and President Bill Clinton extended that moratorium in 1998.
Bush cited opposition to drilling in announcing the lease buyback in Florida, said Capps, "which left Californians asking 'what about us?' "
Nicolette Humphries, a spokesperson for the Minerals Management Service in the Interior Department, said the administration opposed the Capps amendment, viewing it as unnecessary because "we've always offered to sit down and negotiate with the state and industry" on leasing rights off California.
The House also voted to increase funds for the National Endowment for the Arts, the agency that conservatives once tried to eliminate because they said it used taxpayer money to back obscene or blasphemous art.
In a 234-192 vote, the House agreed to increase the NEA budget for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 by $10 million, to $126 million. The same amendment to the $19.8 billion Interior Department spending bill boosted funds for the National Endowment for the Humanities by $5 million to $131 million.
"We've had draconian cuts, but we've come back," Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., said of the amendment offered by Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y.
The NEA, established in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal governments, provides matching grants for arts groups and state and local arts organizations.
It had budgets of more than $170 million in the early 1990s, but barely survived elimination when Republicans took over control of the House in 1995.
In 1997 the House voted 217-216 to eliminate all funding for the arts agency, with social and fiscal conservatives arguing both that the government should not be involved in deciding who gets money for artistic efforts and that the NEA had provided financial support for obscene or offensive art.
Funds were restored at the insistence of the Senate and the Clinton White House, but fell slightly below $100 million a year for the 1996-2000 period.
Efforts to kill the agency have subsided the last few years, with critics acknowledging that the agency has tightened controls over its grants, given Congress more oversight and assured that its grants reach a broader spectrum of Americans.
The House voted 377-46 late Wednesday to approve the Interior bill, one of 13 spending bills Congress must pass every year to operate federal government programs. The bill covers conservation, Indian affairs and public land management and includes $2.2 billion to fight wildfires.
Fiscal conservatives, who had protested that the bill was $900 million above the president's budget request, called off delaying tactics after the GOP leadership agreed to consider in early September, rather than later in the year, the largest and most contentious spending bill, dealing with health and education programs.
Rep. Pat Toomey ( news, bio, voting record), R-Pa., who led the conservative rebellion, said that towing the budget line early on that bill "dramatically increases chances to stick within the budget" on other spending bills.
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The bill is H.R. 5093.
On the Net: Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov
NEA budget is now up to $126 million and NEH to $131 million.
Small potatoes when compared to the Pentagon budget, I know, but it's one more burr under the saddle Americans have to carry.
What we need is a Republican majority in the House to stop this madness!
Oh, wait...
You may get your wish sooner than you think. I think the Republicans are headed for a disaster in November, not because of any of the Dem caterwauling going on, but instead because conservatives are going to stay home.
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