their private life into the public eye. but there will always be those cases where it is tricky. host: 1 excerpt from the movie "frost nixon," and one of the moment you describe a few minutes ago. >> the ones that are not readable in all the papers -- the u.s. actually enjoy those? >> of course. >> you have got no idea how fortunate that makes you -- liking people, being liked, having that facility -- that likeness, that charm. it kind of makes you wonder why it kind of makes you wonder why i chose a life that hinged on being liked. i am better suited to a life of intellectual discipline.

maybe we got it wrong. maybe you should have been a politician and die a rigorous interviewer. >> maybe. guest: that is predominantly written by -- it is fiction but very accurate fiction. i am sure that is exactly what he would have said, though he did not quite say that. but he went quite a bit of the way toward it and so one. but an accurate portrait. host: your new project, "frost over the world." guest: yes, we have been doing it for a couple of years, but it is absolutely new in the sense that this week is the big launch here in washington, mag, where al jazeera comes to america, coming first year to washington on m agreed with h.con.res. providing for reset of the senate and condition of the house of representatives in reach the

conclusion of the house is requested. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lace before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable, the speaker, house of representatives, madam, this letter serves as my intent to resign effective today, john kline, member of congress. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the resignation is accepted. for what purpose does the gentleman from washington rise? mr. dicks: i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days in which to revise and stind their remarks and include extraneous material on h.r. 2996 and that i may include tabular material on the same. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. pursuant to clause 11 of rule 10, clause 11 of rule 1 and the order of the house of january 6, trine, the chair announces the

speaker's appointment of the following member of the house to the permanent select committee on intelligence to fill the existing vack cansy thereon. >> mr. king of new york. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to 22 u.s.c. 2760, and the order of the house, january 6, 2009, the chair announces the appointment of the following members of the house to the canada-united states interparliamentary group. the clerk: mr. oberstar of minnesota, mr. meeks, ms. slaughter, mr. stupak, mr. modes of new hampshire, mr. welch, mr. mann zulea, mr. stearns, mr. brown and mrs. miller. the speaker pro tempore: clause 10 of rule 1 and the order of

the house of january 6, 2009, the chair announces the speaker's appointment of the following house to the british interparliamentary group. the clerk: mr. chandler of kentucky, chairman, mr. sir is, mr. clyburn of south carolina, mr. etheridge of north carolina, mr. bishop of new york, mr. pete try of wisconsin, mr. crenhaw and mr. aderholt and mr. latta of ohio.

the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to house resolution 578 and rule 18, the chair declares the house in the competent committee of the whole in the state of the union for consideration of h.r. 2996. the chair appoints the gentleman from virginia, mr. connolly to preside over the committee of the whole. the chair: house is in the committee of the whole on the state of the union for consideration of h.r. 2996, which the clerk will report by title. the clerk: a bill making appropriations for the department of interior, environment and related agencies for the fiscal year ending

september 30, 2010 and for other purposes. the chair: the bill is considered read the first time. the gentleman from washington, mr. dicks, and the gentleman from idaho, mr. simpson, each will control 0 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. mr. dicks: mr. chairman, i yield myself such time as i may consume and i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman's time is reserved. mr. dicks: it is my privilege and pleasure to present the interior, environment and related agencies appropriations bill to you today. this very fine bill is the product of many hours of hearings and briefings, always with bipartisan input and excellent participation. i'm particularly pleased to present the bill with my friend, mike simpson. the bill before us provides historic increases for the environment, natural resources and native american programs, especially indian health.

it also includes significant allocations to protect our public lands, invest in science and support important cultral agencies. at a time and a total of $3 billion, this bill is an increase of 17% above last year. chairman obey recognizes that the programs funded through this bill have been chronically underfunded and provided the allocation necessary to reverse that trend. from 2001 through 2009 when adjusted for inflation, the budget request for the interior department went down by 16%, the e.p.a. went down by 29% and the nonfire forest service accounts went down by 35%. this bill invests taxpayers' dollars in our natural resources. and for this investment, all americans will see great returns. some will argue that we are spending too much in this bill.

but let's look at the facts. the largest increase by far is for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. the demand for assistance to repair, rehabilitate or build new infrastructure is immense. this subcommittee received 1,200 requests for such assistance from both sides of the aisle. every one of us wants clean and safe drinking water for our constituents. this increase is long overdue. in fact, the first administrator, christine todd wittman did a study that showed there was a $668 billion backlog for these kinds of programs. this kind of infrastructure is desperately needed. that's why we added money here and added money in the stimulus package. yes, this bill includes a $4.7 billion increase above the 2009 level.

but let me remind my colleagues that the programs in this bill will return more than $14.5 billion to the treasury next year. that's revenue. the department of interior alone estimated to return more than $13 billion to the treasury through oil, gas and coal revenues, raising timber and recreation fees and revenues from the duck stamps. the e.p.a.'s leaking underground storage tank program financed by 1/10 of 1% tax per gallon of tax sold has a balance of more than $3 billion that offsets the deficit. clearly, the program in this bill -- programs in this bill goes towards a long way paying for themselves. this bill is not all increases. we had to make difficult choices. through hearings and briefings, we carefully reviewed the proposed budget and have recommended a number of recommendations and terminations.

some of these were the result of recommendations made by the g.a.o. and the inspector general. in total, we recommend program reductions or terminations of over $320 million from the 2009 level and $300 million from the budget request. the bill before us today provides historic increases and focused funding to protect the environment. clean water received $3.9 billion, enough to provide assistance to more than 1,500 communities. we included authorities to subsidized assistance to these cities and towns which cannot afford conventional loans. these funds will provide drinking water and clean water to restore important ecosystems. the bill invests $667 million to restore major lakes and bays. it fully funds the president's request of $475 million for the

great lakes restoration initiative and makes significant investments to protect other great water bodies such as puget sound, long island sound, gulf of mexico and chesapeake bay. this bill provides $420 million for climate change adaptation and scientific study. this includes $178 million for research, planning and conservation efforts within the department of interior and $195 million for e.p.a. science, technology development and regulatory programs, including grants to local communities to cut greenhouse gas emissions. i am especially proud that the bill includes $15 million for the national global warming and wildlife science center at the u.s. geology ogic survey. the bill addresses our commitment to native americans with increases for health care,

law enforcement in indian country. this bill provides $6.8 billion for indian programs, an increase of 654 million above the 2009 level. we recommend a historic increase of $471 million above 2009 for the indian health service to improve the quality and availability of critical health care services. it also includes $182 million above 2009 for the bureau of indian affairs to support justice, law enforcement, jation and social services in native -- education and social services in native american communities. we recommend a major investment in the forest service and to fight and reduce wildfires. the bill has an unprecedented total of $3.66 billion for all of the fire accounts. we have increased overall

wildfire subpoena presentation funding by 39% over 2009, including $357 million for the wildfire contingency accounts. in response to testimony received at a number of hearings, we also recommend a $611 million investment in hazardous fuels reduction. it is clear that focused fuel reduction is important if we hope to reduce the number and severity of wildfires in the future and protect communities and watersheds. the bill provides $198 million increase above 2009 for the national park service to invest in the iconic lands and infrastructure that comprise our national heritage. i'm also particularly proud of our efforts to improve the national wildlife refuge system. we have provided a $40 million increase over 2009 to reduce

critical staffing shortage, implement climate change strategies and improve conservation efforts. the bill improves land management. science programs at the forest, by increasing nonforest programs. the bill provides $1 hundred -- 100 million to protect steams. this is a key part of our effort to protect the national forest and grasslands. and final ily, we have provided an increase of $86 million for the cultral agencies supported by this bill. we recommend $170 million for the national endowment of the arts and national endowment for the humanities. the endowments are vital for preserving america's cultral heritage and supports the smithsonian institution, with an increase of $43 million above

2009. i'm proud of the way we produced this bill. mr. simpson has been an outstanding ranking member whose thoughtful contributions over the course of 20 hearings has helped us to make this a better bill. we heard from 37 government witnesses and 99 members of the public. we received written testimony from an additional 94 witnesses. i was most impressed with the minority's attendance at those hearings. this bill is the product of a bipartisan effort. and i truly believe it is a better bill because of that. i want to take a moment to thank our staff, who have worked long hours without weekend breaks to help prepare this bill. delia scott, chris, greg, beth, juliet, melissa, greg scott on the majority staff with david and daron been gentleman min on the minority staff, pete, ryan

on my staff and melissa and megan from mr. simpson's staff have worked hard and have been a great help to the subcommittee staff. in closing, i want to remind members that although the increases i have outlined are substantial, their impact will be even greater. our subcommitt funds programs that span a bod spectrum of issues, from our cultral and natural heritage. our agencies fight fires, protect great water bodies and tend to the needs of the first americans. these programs are vital to every american. they will improve the environment for everyone and work to fulfill our nation's trust responsibilities. i'm proud of this bill and i ask that you support it. and i reserve the balance of my time. . the chair: the chair recognizes the gentleman from idaho for 30 minutes.

mr. simpson: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the chair: without objection. the gentleman is recognized. mr. simpson: madam chairwoman, let me begin my remarks by expressing my thanks to chairman dicks for the reasonable and evenhanded manner in which he conducted the business of the interior subcommittee this year. while we may disagree about the needed 17% increase in our subcommittee allocation, our work together has been a bipartisan, collaborative effort. we are certainly not going to agree on every issue, but even when we disagree, chairman dicks and i continue to work well together and i thank him for that. i'd also like to commend the chairman for the extraordinary oversight activity of our subcommittee this year. as he mentioned, oversight is one of the committee's most important functions and we have upheld that responsibility by holding 20 subcommittee hearings since the beginning of the year involving over 100 witnesses. i don't know many other subcommittees that can match that record. i also want to applaud the chairman's decision to provide full pay and fixed cost for each of the agencies under this subcommittee's jurisdiction.

we are both concerned by the fact that the president's budget submission for the u.s. forest service covered only 60% of the pay and fix cost while the budget request for the department of interior included 100% pay and fix cost. to date the committee has received no explanation or justification from the administration for this discrepancy. i'm also pleased by the needed attention this legislation provides our native american brothers and sisters. there are many unmet needs within indian country, and education, health care, law enforcement, drug abuse prevention, and other areas. this bill does a great deal to address these issues. chairman dicks and i agree on many things including our obligation to be good stewards of our environment, public lands for future generations. however, we part when it comes to the need for an allocation as generous as the one chairman obey has provided in this bill. the 302-b allocation for this bill is 32.3 billion. 4.7 billion or 17% increase

over last year's enacted level. this increase comes on the heels of historic increases in the subcommittee spending in recent years. interior and the environment spending between 2007 and 2009 including base bills, emergency supplementals, and the american recovery and reinvestment act have increased by 41% and that's before this year's 17% increase. chairman obey is fond of saying, show me a smaller problem and i'll show you a smaller solution. while i may not be able to show the chairman a smaller problem, but i can show him an historically bigger problem where the solution of more and more deficit spending has not worked. including the great depression of the 1930's and japan in the 1990's. but it isn't just the spending that concerns me. this legislation is funding large increases in programs without having clearly defined goals or sufficient processes in place to measure the return on our investment. we are making rapid investments in water, climate change, renewable energy, and other areas all of them worthy

endeavors. but with relatively little planning and coordination across multiple agencies and the rest of government. our country has some serious environmental challenges that need to be addressed. and this bill has an overly generous allocation to meet many of those needs. with all due respect to chairman obey, too often we believe that our commitment to an issue is measured by the amount of money we spend rather than how we are spending that money. history has shown us that bigger budgets do not necessarily produce better results. the climate change issue is an illustration of this point. climate change is today what the term homeland security was in the days and months following the terrorist attacks of september 11. anyone who came into our offices, any of our offices, to discuss an issue, spoke of it in the context of homeland security. the argument was we have to do x, y, or z for our homeland security depends upon it. well, today many of our priorities are related to climate change. i agree with chairman dicks that this is an issue we need

to study and carefully and know more about. it's affecting the intensity of our fires and duration of our fire season. but what have we learned from the money the subcommittee and other committees have provided. are we spending $40 million on climate change next year to learn something new or what we already know? i'm also concerned many climate change functions within this bill won't be coordinated with similar efforts undertaken by federal agencies resulting in duplication of effort. we ought to require coordination across the entire federal government on an issue as important as this and one on which we are spending as much money governmentwide as we are. it's nor this reason that the minority -- for this reason that the minority adopted an amendment requiring the president to report to congress 120 days after submission of this -- of the 2011 budget request on all obligation and expenditures across government on climate change programs and activities for f.y. 2008, 2009, and 2010.

it's not because we are opposed to climate change programs but because we need to be coordinated governmentwide. given the uncertain economic times our country is facing, i'm also troubled by the unsustainable pattern of spending in 24 legislation. the committee and congress ought to be concerned about the impact of too much spending as we are about the potential impact of climate change and other issues. chairman dicks has spoken on many occasion abouts what he describes as the dark days and the misguided policies and priorities of the previous administration. still, for any perceived or real inadequacies of past policies or budget, it would be a mistake for any of us to believe we can simply spend our way to a solution for every challenge we face. the federal reserve chairman, ben bernanke, recently told congress it's time for the obama administration to develop a strategy to address record deficits or risk long-term damage to our economy. he said, quote, unless we demonstrate a strong commitment

to fiscal sustainability in the longer term, we will have neither financial stability nor healthy economic growth. unquote. a good bill is a balanced bill. but providing the disproportionate level of of funding to one agency creates an imbalance that undermines the legitimate needs of other deserving agencies. that is why i question a $10.6 billion budget for the e.p.a. a 38% increase from last year. this on top of a 7.2 billion the agency received in the stimulus package and 7.6 billion it received in the enacted 2009 interior bill. taken together e.p.a. will receive over $25 billion this calendar year alone. that's about the size of this subcommittee's entire budget just two years ago. while the e.p.a. will recve an extraordinary historic funding increase, it's worth noting that the u.s. forest service has -- was recently rated as one of the worst places to work in the federal government by a study conducted by the office of personnel

management. it isn't clear whier forest service employees feel as they do, but it may be linked to the incredible funding challenges the service has faced in recent years due to the growing cost of fire suppression. from our hearings we know that almost 50% of the forest service budget is now consumed by the cost of fighting wildfires. in past years the forest service has had to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars from other accounts just to pay for fire suppression. without any question this creates uncertainty among forest service employees. president obama is to be commended for tackling the issue of budgeting for fire suppression by proposing a fully funded fire suppression budget as well as a contingency reserve fund. i commend chairman dicks for providing forest service with resources to address many fire related needs. still based upon recent fire patterns and monumental increase in demand for fire suppression dollars, i feel strongly that the wildfire contingency reserve fund should be funded at the president's

request at $357 million. this reserve fund is similar to the emergency fund source contained in the flame act which passed the house on march by an overwhelming 412-3 vote. that is why the minority offered an amendment adopted during full committee consideration which increased the fire contingency reserve found from $250 million in the chairman's mark to the president's requested level of $357 million. if virtually every other item in this legislation is funded at or above the president's request level, there should be no justification -- justifiable reason to exclude fire suppression. i want to thank the chairman for accepting that amendment in the full committee. we paid for this increase by rescinding $107 million from the e.p.a.'s prior year balances. according to the may, 2009 report issued by the e.p.a. inspector general's office, the e.p.a. presently has $163 million on the books that have been sitting there unspent since 1999. the e.p.a. does some good work, but if those dollars haven't

been spent in 10 years we ought to put them to good use fighting fires. while chairman dicks has done a good job addressing many critical issues in this bill, i don't believe that a $4.7 million or 17% increase over the f.y. 2009 enacted level is justified or warranted. this unprecedented increase follows a $3.2 billion or 13% increase between f.y. 2008 and f.y. 2009 spending bills as well as $11 billion infusion from the american recovery and reinvestment act. frankly we can't afford this. in closing, i would again like to thank chairman dicks for the evenhandedness that he has shown in working with us. we work well together. and i think this bill shows that. in closing i'd like to thank both majority and minority leader staff for their long hours and fine work in producing this legislation. on the majority side this includes deala -- diela, chris,

julie, greg, beth, melissa, ryan, and pete. on the minority side let me thank my staff, melissa, megan, kaylyn, as well as the committee staffers. if the members of this house worked as well together as the majority and minority staffers do, we would get more done in this place. i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington, mr. dicks. mr. dicks: i'd like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from kansas for the purpose of a colloquy. mr. tiahrt: i thank the chairman of the committee and chairman dicks for the opportunity to discuss this important issue. after serving with chairman dicks as ranking member of his subcommittee during the 110th congress, i know how hard he has worked to make sure communities have access to e.p.a. grants to help with their state and tribal assistance grants and clean water needs. it has come to my attention

that in the fiscal year 2009 appropriations act, contained money for the city of manhattan kansas and riley county for the sewer line. however with the delay in getting the money, the city had to go ahead with construction of the sewer line and now needs to use the money for a water line. e.p.a. is supportive of the correction. and i ask unanimous consent to include a record of this from the e.p.a. region 7 office expressing their support for the correction. the chair: the gentleman's request will be covered by general leave. mr. dicks: mr. the gentleman yield? it is my understanding that the community went forward with the necessary work in light of the federal delay and now would like to use the money for a water line. is that correct? mr. tiahrt: that is correct. my fellow kansan, the distinguished member of the second district of can a. ms. jenkins, has worked hard on this issue. the region is experiencing high growth due to the ongoing troop buildup of fort riley.

the city of manhattan, kansas, and riley county are cooperating to provide municipal level services among the corridor near fort riley. strong interest has been expressed in the area by the developmental community. and there have been limitations on future growth on the manhattan's west side. in the 2003 update of the manhattan urban area comprehensive plan, which was a joint planning initiative with the city and county, specifically identifies the k-177 gateway area as a potential urban growth corridor if municipal level services are provided. that's why the city could not wait on the sewer line project. it is already underway and being managed by the county. the city will be responsible for the design, bidding, and overseeing the water project. the cost of both the water and sewer projects will be shared by the federal government, city of manhattan, and riley county. clearly it was congressional intent that manhattan's needs be funded. i understand they are not i understand they are not making technical corrections on