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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (483089)	10/28/2003 10:54:38 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

So you're smarter than OMB? Wanna back those numbers up? They disagree.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (483089)	10/28/2003 11:22:11 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Respond to of 769670

The push to move the Bush administration's "Healthy Forest" legislation through the Senate has been slowed by some Democrats who want to debate or add amendments to the bill when it reaches the floor. ======== Calif. Fires May Lead To Tree-Thinning Bill By Christopher Doering Reuters Wednesday, October 29, 2003; Page A23 Deadly California wildfires could spur the Senate to consider as early as today a bill that would ease environmental rules and limit judicial review on tree-thinning projects in U.S. forests vulnerable to fire, congressional sources said. The push to move the Bush administration's "Healthy Forest" legislation through the Senate has been slowed by some Democrats who want to debate or add amendments to the bill when it reaches the floor. Nearly 500,000 acres have burned in Southern California in recent days. The raging fires have killed at least 15 people, destroyed or badly damaged more than 1,500 homes, and dumped ash over the area. More than 40,000 people were forced to flee their homes as fires spread, fueled by bone-dry scrub brush and timber. Congressional aides said that although an agreement hasn't been reached, pressure on the Senate to pass the bill is growing. "We're making good progress and we're hopeful," an aide to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said yesterday. "We're hoping to bring it up tomorrow." Democrats remained split over compromise legislation introduced earlier this month by a bipartisan group including Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). The legislation would allow thinning projects on 20 million acres of U.S. land while offering protection for old-growth forests. While Feinstein and others have pushed to move the compromise forward, Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) have insisted on further debate. "With all of the forests burning out west, there is a lot of new political pressure to try and deal with this," said Bill Wicker, a spokesman for Bingaman. "We are good to go if [the Republicans] want to bring the bill to the floor without any restrictions" on adding amendments. The bipartisan compromise would budget $760 million each year to pay for forest-thinning projects, with at least half the funds earmarked for local communities. The legislation would also limit judicial review by requiring judges to renew preliminary injunctions blocking logging projects every 60 days. "We have the only bill that can be accepted by this body," said Feinstein, who urged opponents not to add amendments to it. "We need to put everything aside and just get a bill passed." A House bill passed in May would require the preliminary injunction to be renewed every 45 days. The bill did not specify how much of the money should be used on work near homes. Environmental groups have criticized the Senate compromise. They fear it would fail to adequately protect old-growth forests and limit judicial review, while not providing adequate thinning near residential areas. The California fire "demonstrates the need to do the work in the area where it's going to do the most good, and that's the areas closest to where people live," said Tiernan Sittenfeld, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. "We're concerned the Senate [bill] doesn't" do that, Sittenfeld said.