After an early lull, the Capitol Hill pace is picking up these days. Bills are being introduced left and right as members of Congress try to influence several large pieces of legislation with which policy and money committees are wrestling.
 
 
Interior Appropriations
 
First will be the House Interior Appropriations bill—typically the vehicle for many environment and natural resource-related amendments. The votes on this bill will likely comprise a big portion of the REP 2007 Congressional Scorecard.
 
As occurred last year, the biggest Interior appropriations battles will be over offshore oil and gas drilling. Rep. John Peterson (R-PA), who received the lowest score on REP’s 2006 Scorecard, has renewed his efforts to remove the Congressional moratoria on offshore drilling. More positively, there may be efforts to restore protection to Alaska’s Bristol Bay in response to the Bush administration’s recent lifting of a 1998 presidential order prohibiting oil drilling.
 
As in the past, Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH)—with Rep. Robert Andrews (D-NJ)—will propose an amendment to end logging road subsidies in the Tongass National Forest. This will likely pass the House but be challenged in the Senate, where Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) has killed similar amendments in past sessions.
 
The Senate Interior Appropriations bill is expected to follow a few weeks after the House completes its version.
 
 
The Farm Bill

The farm bill is up for reauthorization this year. REP is advocating for a bill that protects conservation programs (such as the Conservation Reserve and Wetlands Reserve Programs*), includes a strong energy title that promotes biofuels and other renewable energy, and reforms commodity-crop subsidies.

Numerous agriculture-related bills containing elements that should be part of the new farm bill have been introduced over the past few months. GOP Representatives Jim Gerlach (PA), Wayne Gilchrest (MD), Tom Petri (WI), Jim Saxton (NJ), Chris Shays (CT) and Dave Reichert (WA), and Senator Richard Luger (IN) are among those sponsoring bills that would help accomplish REP’s goals.

NOTE: Download our Winter C.E.P. (Conservative Environmental Policy) Quarterly, which is focused on the 2007 Farm Bill.


Climate Change

Climate change is now the biggest environmental topic in Congress and across the nation. It seems as if every member of Congress is rushing to introduce a climate bill…well, except die-hard deniers such as Senator James Inhofe (OK) and Rep. Joe Barton (TX).

The biggest news on the climate front is the movement of Republican Senators such as Lamar Alexander (TN), Norm Coleman (MN), Judd Gregg (NH) and John Sununu (NH), who are co-sponsoring bills to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
Here are a few key bills and the Republican co-sponsors:

• Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act of 2007: Susan Collins (ME), John McCain (AZ), Olympia Snowe (ME) and Coleman
• Clean Air Planning Act of 2007: Collins, Gregg and Sununu
• Clean Air/Climate Change Act of 2007: Alexander
  

Additional Priorities

REP has been working to secure support for two other good bills. One would codify the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS), which includes national monuments, conservation areas, trails, wilderness, and wild and scenic rivers on BLM land. Currently, the NLCS exists only by regulatory fiat. Codification by Congress will give it permanent status similar to that of the national parks and wildlife refuges.

Original GOP co-sponsors of the House bill, H.R. 2016, include Reps. Mary Bono (CA), Wayne Gilchrest (MD), Mark Kirk (IL), Rick Renzi (AZ) and Heather Wilson (NM).

REP is also securing co-sponsors for the Clean Water Restoration Act (H.R. 2421), sponsored by Rep. Vernon Ehlers (MI). This bill would restore Clean Water Act protection to wetlands, headwaters and other essential water bodies that were impacted by two ambiguous Supreme Court decisions.


Other Praiseworthy Notables

Rep. Todd Platts (PA)—for being the lead GOP sponsor of the Fuel Economy Reform Act (H.R. 1506), which would increase the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for passenger cars by 4 percent each year, starting in 2009.

Senator John Warner (VA)—for being the lead GOP sponsor of the Roadless Area Conservation Act of 2007 (S. 1478), which would protect 58.5 million acres of inventoried roadless areas in National Forests.

Representatives Mark Kirk (IL), Chris Shays (CT) and Jim Ramstad (MN)—for being the lead GOP co-sponsors of the House version of the Roadless Area Conservation Act.

Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (MD)—for being the lead Republican sponsor of the Bristol Bay Protection Act (H.R. 1957), which would restore the congressional moratorium on oil drilling in Bristol Bay, Alaska.