The Obama Administration kicked off the annual federal budget process last month with release of their proposed funding priorities for fiscal year 2013. ?The budget request includes an overall reduction in federal spending with specific cuts to certain programs that impact natural resource management, according to the Wildlife Management Institute. However, a president's budget proposal is a starting framework for Congress to consider as they develop the annual appropriations bills.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) funding request focuses on "fiscal discipline, core missions and strategic investments" with an overall request for $11.5 billion. At this level, DOI's budget is roughly the same as the 2012 enacted budget of $11.43 billion that was 3 percent below the enacted level for 2011. Specific agency funding requests include a slight increase for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to $1.55 billion, level funding for the National Park Service at $2.61 billion and a 4 percent increase for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

"Interior's work remains vital to powering our Nation's sustained economic growth," Secretary Ken Salazar stated. "We are helping to build a comprehensive domestic energy economy ? creating American jobs and driving innovation. We are ushering in a new era of conservation to protect the lands, water and wildlife that power local economies, drive tourism, and define us as a people."

The DOI budget proposal would continue to target funding towards key programs such as the Administration's America's Great Outdoors initiative. This includes a request of $450 million for the Land and Water Conservation Fund with priority projects focusing on large landscape conservation efforts like the Dakota Grasslands (North and South Dakota) and Crown of the Continent in western Montana. This land acquisition request also includes $2.5 million for the BLM to acquire easements to federal lands for hunting and fishing access, part of the sportsmen's community's "making public lands public" effort. The budget proposal targets spending toward developing a "new energy frontier" including a proposed 21 percent increase for renewable energy programs (to $86 million) and a 10 percent increase for conventional onshore and offshore energy programs (to $662 million).

In addition to establishing recommended funding levels, the proposal includes policy priorities to raise revenue such as increasing the cost of the Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamps (Duck Stamps) from $15 to $25 and reauthorizing the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act (FLTFA). According to DOI, these legislative proposals are "generally revenue-neutral but will have significant conservation benefits."

The proposed budget for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) would make cuts to several key conservation programs, with an overall spending request of $827 million in discretionary funding, a decrease of nearly $25 million from 2012 levels. The proposal caps the number of acres that can be enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program at 30 million, down from 32 million. In addition, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program is proposed to have a slight decrease in funding and the Conservation Stewardship program would be set to enroll only 12 million acres, a reduction of almost 760,000 acres. More concerning is that the proposed budget does not allocate new funding for the Wetlands Reserve Program and the Grasslands Reserve Program, affecting the ability to enroll new acres in the program unless the Farm Bill is reauthorized by the end of 2012.

"America's wetlands and grasslands are some of our most vulnerable habitats, yet provide incalculable benefits," commented Steve Kline, director of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership's Center for Agricultural and Private Lands. "Thankfully, programs like WRP and GRP are custom built for the job of conserving these critical spots, but we need the commitment of the president and Congress, working together, to ensure that future generations of American hunters and anglers can set off through a patch of native prairie or set a string of duck decoys in a pothole wetland."

It is clear that many members of Congress see the funding landscape very differently and have their own plans for federal spending. "Over the next few weeks and months, the Appropriations Committee will conduct comprehensive budget oversight hearings, including calling on Administration officials to account for their past and proposed use of taxpayer dollars. The Committee will go line by line through the President's budget, prioritize programs, and make decisions on the appropriate investment of discretionary funds," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers in a statement. ?"It is essential that this Congress do its utmost to root out the unnecessary, ineffectual, and problematic spending in this budget to ensure that each tax dollar is well spent ? continuing our historical reductions that have saved the taxpayers $95 billion over the last two years." (jas)<-->