[at-l] NPS & FS land aquistion ending.

[Snodrog5 at aol.com (Snodrog5@xxxxxxx)]

http://www.appalachiantrail.org/trailnews/index.html

House Subcommittee Decimates Federal Land Acquisition
The House interior appropriations subcommittee has voted, in effect, to 
destroy the land-acquisition programs of the USDA Forest Service and the National 
Park Service, recommending only $11 million in the coming 2004 fiscal year for 
the former and $14 for the latter ? easily the lowest levels for Land and 
Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) appropriations in 25 years, including the term of 
Interior Secretary James Watt in the Reagan administration. The Senate 
Appropriations Committee appeared ready to follow that lead. Moreover, administration 
budget officials told the Forest Service this month to return $7 million of 
this year's appropriations for land acquisition to a firefighting reserve, less 
than three months after the agency got them (halfway through the fiscal year). 
On July 20, 2002, all Forest Service land-acquisition funds were taken for 
firefighting and restored eight months later. ATC had endorsed for 2004 a 
$1-million Georgia project and a $3.8-million Tennessee project, both second phases 
of 2003 A.T. projects and included in the administration's budget request, as 
well as a Virginia project affecting several A.T. sections. The House 
subcommittee is chaired by Rep. Charles H. Taylor, R-N.C., whose district includes the 
Appalachian Trail. Other members with the Trail in their districts include 
Reps. Don Sherwood, R-Pa., and John Olver, D-Mass. During the 2000 campaign, 
President Bush pledged to "fully fund" the LWCF, and the White House earlier this 
year said it had done so in 2002. The measure passed June 18 would cut the 
fund by half, bringing the total down 65 percent from 2001, including a 78 
percent drop in land-acquisition programs. The bill also abandons Congress' 
commitment to its new Conservation Trust Fund.
June 23, 2003 

    

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