House refuses to end snowmobile use in Yellowstone, Grand Teton
WASHINGTON (AP) – The House voted Thursday against halting the use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, upholding by the narrowest of margins a Bush administration plan to limit the number and emissions of the vehicles. The decision to continue letting snowmobiles into two of the National Park Service’s crown jewels was a victory for the area’s winter sports interests.
The 210-210 roll call in the Republican-run House – with a majority required for a provision to prevail – was a defeat for environmentalists, who say the tracked vehicles spew too much pollution and noise, threatening wildlife.
“The Park Service actually issues respirators to its rangers. It is that bad, and they use them,” said Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., a sponsor of the provision that was defeated.
The vote was among several triumphs for business and the White House as the House neared approval of a bill providing $19.6 billion for the Interior Department and other federal land and cultural programs next year.
By 222-198, the chamber rejected an effort by Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., to stop the administration from updating the two-decade-old rules used to decide how national forests can be used.
The administration says the National Forest Management Act must be streamlined because it can take years to redraw forest plans. Opponents said the proposal would give undue input to loggers and other industries.
The House also voted 255-163 against a proposal by Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif., to ban bear baiting – luring bears with food so they can be shot – on public lands.
An amendment by Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., defeated 220-199, would have forbidden federal funds from being used to kill bison that leave Yellowstone.
Local ranchers are concerned the buffalo might transmit disease to their cattle.
Snowmobile use in the two parks, which lie mostly in northwestern Wyoming, would have been phased out by next winter under a plan issued in the final days of the Clinton administration.
But President Bush’s Interior Department has proposed new rules allowing only several hundred of the vehicles to enter the parks daily, setting standards for noise and pollution and limiting them to park trails.
“If you didn’t want human interaction in Yellowstone Park, you’re about 100 years too late,” said Rep. Dennis Rehberg, R-Mont.
The chamber also voted 228-197 against limiting some farmers’ crops in the Northwest’s dry Klamath Basin, now in its third year of a water war among local growers, fishermen, environmentalists and Indians.
Advocates of federal financing for the arts won a fight when the chamber voted 225-200 to provide $127 million next year for the National Endowment for the Arts, $10 million more than Bush requested and the bill initially contained. The agency, which a decade ago survived attempts by conservatives to eliminate it, is getting $116 million this year.
Republicans decided not to try killing a provision limiting the Bush administration’s ability to replace many Interior Department workers with employees of private companies. Democrats said Republicans lacked the votes to erase the language, which has drawn a White House veto threat, while Republicans said they would reconsider the issue.
In other spending action:
_The Senate by 95-0 approved a $369 billion defense bill after fighting off Democratic efforts to force investigations into the Bush administration’s use of intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s alleged efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction.
_The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $17 billion agriculture bill after voting to ease restrictions on U.S. farm and drug sales to Cuba.
_The Senate panel approved an $18.1 billion foreign aid bill that, like the House version, would leave federal funds for combating HIV/AIDS overseas next year at $2 billion. That is the amount Bush is now seeking, though he has also voiced support for $3 billion.
_The same Senate committee approved a $27.3 billion package of energy and water programs that provides more money than Bush requested for water projects popular with lawmakers. It also provides the full $68 million the president wants for research on developing “bunker busting” nuclear weapons, which the House version of the bill would eliminate.