Interior Secretary Norton Scolded For Ignoring Congress

by J.R. Pegg

(ENS) WASHINGTON -- Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton faced harsh criticism Thursday from the Senate Energy Committee, as members from both sides of the aisle blasted her department for failing to respond to Congressional requests for information.

"This problem has to end," Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Republican, told Norton. "I consider it your responsibility to see that it ends."

The Interior Department ignored some 125 questions submitted in writing by the committee a year ago, according to Domenici.

"I do not think we have ever had a period É when we had such poor levels of response from the department," said Senator Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat and ranking minority member on the committee.

Bingaman honed in on a September request for information about the Interior Department's decision to allow a weeklong Pepsi sponsored festival to be held on the National Mall to celebrate the start of the National Football League (NFL) season.

The Interior Department offered no response until December 17, Bingaman said, when he received an indifferent letter from a Norton aide telling the senator that his request was denied in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Bingaman said the letter included a comment that he would not be charged $16.70 -- the normal fee for a FOIA response.

The individual who sent the letter should be reprimanded, Domenici said.

"If nothing has happened to them, then shame on you," he told the Interior Secretary.

Norton, appearing before the committee to discuss the fiscal year 2005 Interior budget request, offered little excuse for the department's actions, but promised to personally monitor the situation.

"I sincerely apologize for the oversight in not responding and not responding appropriately," Norton told the committee.

The hearing was the first on the Interior Department budget request and committee members had little praise for the $11 billion plan, which holds spending essentially flat compared with 2004 appropriations for the department's eight bureaus.

Both New Mexico senators criticized a $9.5 million cut in funding for efforts to restore habitat for the endangered silvery minnow.

The fish was once one of the most common species in Rio Grande, occurring over a 1,000 mile range that included what is now New Mexico. Now it occurs only in a 170 mile stretch of the Middle Rio Grande Valley and has become the center of an ongoing legal battle over water use, development and endangered species protection.

The $5 million the administration has requested for this year is part of the federal government's 10 year $233 million plan to save the minnow.

"I will be amazed if you can comply with that biological opinion with the money you asked for," Bingaman said.

But Norton said the money is sufficient and told Domenici the department is considering his plan to form some kind of minnow sanctuary.

Domenici explained that he wanted to resolve the dispute by bringing "the minnow to the water instead of the water to the minnow," and safeguarding the species in protected waters.

"There is no more important issue to the people who live on that river," he said. "They would cheer if there was some way to protect the minnow without losing the water."

Idaho Republican Senator Larry Craig complained to Norton about the $58 million budget request for invasive species, a figure he said looks inadequate.

Some 5,000 to 6,000 invasive species have settled in the United States and these invaders are costing the nation some $137 billion annually along with untold and irreversible ecological harm.

"We have vegetative deserts out there because of invasive weeds," said Craig, who added that the need to do more about the problem is one of the few areas where environmentalists and ranchers agree.

The Interior Department estimates that up to 46 percent of threatened and endangered species owe their status in whole or in part to the uncontrolled spread of invasive species.

Norton said the budget request supports an interagency approach to the problem that focuses on early detection. The funding will be used to target salt cedar in the southwest and control of the brown tree snake population on Guam.

The request does not appear to be enough money, nor does it seem well targeted, said Senator Daniel Akaka, a Hawaii Democrat.

Biologists have identified Hawaii as the state that has the most serious problem with invasive species, Akaka said, "but there is no funding for any species threatening Hawaii."

Norton touted other cooperative grant programs available to states and told Akaka the administration considered invasive species "a serious concern."

Bingaman took aim at the administration's funding request for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which he called "something akin to a budgetary shell game."

The Interior budget earmarks $660.6 million for the fund and when combined with funds for similar programs at the U.S. Forest Service, the administration touts the request as $900 million.

"Our budget fulfills the President's commitments to fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund," Norton said.

That is misleading, Bingaman said, because the administration has put other programs under the umbrella of the LWCF to prop up its total funding level to $900 million.

Congress originally committed the LWCF to two authorized programs -- one for federal land acquisition and the other for state grants through the National Park Service.

The Bush budget has $220 million for land acquisition and $94 million for state grants, said Bingaman, only one third of the President's $900 million annual pledge for the fund.

Norton said that Congress, over time, has funded a number of different programs out of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The department believes more money should be spent on restoration efforts, she said, rather than land acquisition.

"We do not have the need to acquire that much additional land," Norton said. "We have to take care of what we have."

Bingaman said that her answer fell short because the law calls for 40 percent of the fund to be earmarked for federal land acquisition.

"You are explaining why you do not agree with the law," he told the Secretary Norton.