The U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate are in a standoff over funding the federal government for the current fiscal year, with funding for natural resource-related programs in the crosshairs, the Wildlife Management Institute. The chambers are struggling with managing the ballooning budget deficit, but at odds on how budget cuts should be made. Congress is now working to reconcile a House-passed resolution that makes dramatic cuts to natural resource programs; a Senate alternative that would be less damaging to those programs but still would bring deep cuts. All of the proposals under consideration stand in stark contrast to the President's natural resource Fiscal Year 2012 budget that boosts spending for these programs.

The current funding debate centers on the continuing resolution necessary to fund the government for the remainder of FY 2011. The continuing resolution that passed Congress in December was set to expire on March 4, but the chambers failed to reach agreement on a proposal that would fund through the remainder of the year. As a result, another short-term resolution, which included $4 billion in spending cuts, passed in early March to keep programs in operation through March 18. None of those funds were for Department of the Interior (DOI) or related agency programs.

In late February, the House passed a continuing resolution, H.R.1, which included more than $100 billion in cuts to discretionary spending from the President's proposed FY11 budget request. Included in those cuts was a $4.4 billion reduction to the DOI and environment agencies' budgets. The bulk of those cuts were to the Environmental Protection Agency, which is targeted to receive a 29-percent reduction in budget from FY10. Within the DOI, specific programs took substantial hits. The North American Wetlands Conservation Act and the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants were both slated to receive no funding, and the Land and Water Conservation Fund faces an 87-percent reduction from FY10 spending levels. Conservation programs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are proposed for reduction of $173 million from FY10 levels. In addition, legislative language within the bill calls for a permanent reduction of the Wetlands Reserve Program by nearly 50,000 acres.

"The Continuing Resolution ? represents the largest reduction in non-security discretionary spending in the history of the nation," stated House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers during the debate on the floor of the House. "It funds the federal government for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year, but, most importantly, it answers taxpayers' calls to right our nation's fiscal ship, making specific, substantive and comprehensive spending reductions?cutting more than $100 billion compared with the President's FY11 budget request."

The Senate has proposed an alternative that reduces the President's proposed FY11 budget by $51 billion. For the DOI and environment provisions, the overall spending levels in the Senate alternative are $31.1 billion?a reduction of only $1.3 billion from the President's FY11 request. To maintain some of the funding levels in this portion of the budget, the Senate bill would reallocate $600 million in fire-fighting funds that were not spent due to the less-severe nature of the last two fire seasons. This rescission returns $162 million to basic operations at the National Park Service, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and Bureau of Land Management that were cut in the House bill. In addition, the Senate's proposed continuing resolution would fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $407 million and provide $47.6 million for the North American Wetlands Conservation Fund and $90 million for state and tribal wildlife grants. The Senate also includes a 26-percent increase from the House-passed bill for operations of the USFWS. For USDA's conservation programs, the Senate would provide $875 million, that is a 9-percent cut from the President's budget but an increase of $19 million from the House-passed bill.

"The Senate has put forward a reasonable, fiscally responsible bill that will reduce funding at a rate that is $51 billion below the President's budget request," Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye said in a statement. "This bill is a good faith effort to meet in the middle. It is now time to end political gamesmanship and stop gambling with people's lives and livelihoods. I urge our counterparts in the House to engage in a constructive dialogue with us that will end the current budget stalemate."

However, in dueling votes on March 9, both the Senate proposal and the House-passed bill failed to secure the 60 votes necessary to bring the bill to the Senate floor for final passage. As a result, both sides will need to go back to the drawing board to reach? consensus on a bill that can pass both chambers. The current resolution funding the government expires on March 18 and, if agreement cannot be reached and another short-term funding bill fails to pass, there are concerns that the budget stalemate that will cause a government shutdown.

"Who would pay attention to either one of these bills when they're not serious?" Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska told reporters after the vote. "The Republicans did nothing with their bill to attract Democrats. The Democrats did nothing with their bill to attract Republicans. And if you're looking for consensus, you're looking for solution, you've got to do what they haven't done." (jas)