Chuca, Protect your BLM claims
Alert More phone calls needed!!!
>Ask senators to defend 3809 mining amendment!
>The 2001 Agriculture Appropriations bill, S-2536, is set to be considered
>by the full Senate any day now starting this week. When it is, mining
>supporters anticipate an attempt by Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and/or
>Richard Durbin (D-IL) to strike language included in Section 3105 of the
>bill. The language clarifies and reaffirms the agreement negotiated between
>the Interior Department and Congress in the fiscal 2000 Interior
>Appropriations bill that any changes to 3809 FLPMA (Federal Land Policy &
>Management Act) regulations cannot be "inconsistent with the NAS (National
>Academy of Sciences) report on hardrock mining."
>This amendment is necessary because Interior has adopted such a narrow and
>extreme interpretation of the fiscal 2000 agreement. Because Interior's
>interpretation of the statute renders the agreement meaningless, it is
>necessary to give Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt clear and specific
>instructions to adopt those changes recommended by the NAS.
>Please contact your two senators immediately and emphasize the above point
>because mining opponents are inaccurately claiming the amendment will
>destroy last year's agreement - a line of attack likely to be used by Sen.
> Murray in her "motion to strike."
>You can call toll free at 888-449-3511. Mining may not be YOUR issue
>today, but if all of the natural resource industry does not stand together
>we all are going to fall.
>A little history:
>In 1998, Congress ordered a study by the National Research Council of the
>NAS to determine the effectiveness of current federal and state mining
>regulations. NAS completed its study in September 1999, finding that
>current mining rules are generally effective, and that major changes in the
>federal rules are unnecessary. Instead, NAS recommended specific changes
>that would improve the current federal rules.
>In November 1999, Congress implemented the NAS report conclusions by giving
>Interior the go-ahead to finalize 3809 rules that are "not inconsistent
>with" the NAS report.
>However, only a month later, in December 1999, Interior's Solicitor
>concluded in a legal opinion that Congress' direction in the fiscal 2000
>bill to act consistently with the NAS report applies only to a small
>fraction of the report - only those words specifically labeled as
>"Recommendations," and not the entire report. The Solicitor further found
>that Interior can finalize whatever 3809 changes it wishes, as long as
>those rules are "not inconsistent with" that small fraction of the NAS
>report. In affect, Interior concluded that it must act consistently only
>with about 5 pages of the 125-page report, and can ignore the conclusions
>and recommendations contained in the remaining 120 pages.
>Interior has twisted the directions given by Congress to suit its own
>anti-mining purposes and must now be told again - that's what the amendment
>does that mining opponents would like to strike.
>Please let your senators know that the amendment is necessary and to vote
>against striking it. Doing so will ensure that mining on public lands
>continues to be conducted in an environmentally responsible manner, while
>also ensuring that the regulatory system is effective, efficient and
>equitable. |
