This Week in Washington
For the Week Ending May 10, 2001
This weekly report is written by the American Society of Civil Engineers' Government Relations staff. If you have questions or comments about any items in this report, please contact Brian Pallasch, Michael Charles, Martin Hight, Austin Fulk, or Liz Hermsen by e-mail or at 202/789-2200.
Inside This Week:
House Committee Approves Major Education Bill
Losing support of conservative Republicans but gaining support from Committee Democrats, the House Education and the Workforce Committee on May 9 approved, with a vote of 41-7, and sent to the floor its version of President Bush's plan (H.R. 1) to reform elementary and secondary education.
The legislation contains provisions that will strengthen math and science education. Most efforts in that area will remain in the form of improved teacher training and continuing education. The bill also provides funds for partnerships between school districts and universities. ASCE has been in support of these provisions.
During the committee's markup, the cost of the legislation rose to $23 billion, about $4.8 billion more than the president requested. That alone angered some conservatives, who conceded that modest hikes in school spending were warranted but balked at the larger amount won by Democrats and some Republican moderates. Among the provisions removed were tuition vouchers, worth $1,500 to pupils who wanted to transfer to private or parochial schools from failing public schools. The final version also deleted a Bush provision that would have turned over large sums of federal money with no strings attached to states.
The Senate version of the legislation, S. 1, is currently being debated on the Senate floor.
Congress Passes FY 2002 Budget Resolution
The House of Representatives passed the Fiscal Year 2002 budget conference report on May 9 by a 221-207 vote. Though a few Senators vowed not to vote for the budget, citing the lack of new funding for education, the budget report passed the Senate on May 10 with a vote of 53-47. The final budget plan calls for an 11-year reconciled tax cut of $1.35 trillion and a total FY02 discretionary spending level of $661.3 billion, a 4 percent increase over current spending. However, some members of the budget conference committee refused to include more than $300 billion over 10 years additional education funding the Senate added to its version of the budget. President Bush is expected to sign it shortly.
Species Preservation Program Underfunded, Swamped by Litigation
A major problem with the species listing process under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a lack of funds, possibly on the order of $120 million, government and private-sector experts told the Senate Environment & Public Works Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Water on May 9. Another significant problem is the number of lawsuits generated by conservationists who are unhappy with the pace of work under the Act at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the witnesses said.
Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), chairman of the subcommittee, complained that the process is dysfunctional. "We have recovered and delisted just nine U.S. [plant and animal] species since the ESA was passed [in 1973]," he said.
It would cost $80 million to $120 million to complete the listing process for species that need protection from the ESA, according to the witnesses. The listing program at the FWS is slated to receive $8.4 million in Fiscal Year 2002. The backlog grew out of chronic underfunding for the ESA in recent years.
David Wilcove, an ecologist with Environmental Defense (formerly the Environmental Defense Fund), said it would take 30 years to clear up the current listing backlog at the current funding level. Meanwhile, more than 3,000 other species need the ESA's protection but cannot be addressed until the backlog is cleared, he said. Wilcove said the FWS should receive a budget of at least $20 million a year to complete the listing process.
Gary Frazier, assistant director of endangered species at the FWS, said all of the FWS budget is used to comply with court orders that mandate species listings and habitat designations. He said no money is left over to address species protection needs based on the FWS priorities developed through the best science available to the government and the actual status of species in the wild.
Frazier said the FWS must comply with judicial orders because the courts "have no discretion but to order us to act as soon as possible on whatever backlogged action comes before them [in a lawsuit brought by conservationists]."
Recent Transportation Study Identifies Mobility Trends
The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) on May 7 released its yearly Urban Mobility Study that attempts to address many of the issues that the motoring public, transportation officials, and policy makers often raise regarding traffic congestion and urban mobility in a way that is useful to these different "information markets." The report illustrates transportation trends from 1982 through 1999, and this year?s statistics include a wide variety of findings in the 68 urban areas that were studied:
This year's report is the product of a cooperative effort involving TTI and 11 state departments of transportation. Each year, the study examines new data and uses new measures to communicate vital transportation issues to a wide range of audiences. The report is available on the TTI's web site at http://mobility.tamu.edu.
Urban Growth Bill Introduced in House of Representatives
Legislation that would require the Council on Environmental Quality to conduct a study on urban sprawl and smart growth was introduced on May 3 by Representative Mark Udall (D-CO). The bill, H.R. 1739, would ensure the consideration by federal agencies of urban sprawl in the preparation of their environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. A copy of the legislation can be accessed on the web at http://thomas.loc.gov.
