William Tauzin: “Mr. Chairman, CARA is financed from the receipts of the Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas production. It is not coming…”

“Mr. Chairman, CARA is financed from the receipts of the Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas production. It is not coming out of general revenues. Since the inception of that OSC program, Congress always intended that a portion of these receipts would be reinvested in conservation purposes through programs like the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Now, I do not know if my colleagues are aware of it, but there are nearly $13 billion now in the Land and Water Conservation Fund and over $2 billion in the Historic Preservation Fund in unappropriated balances that already have been authorized by Congress. Congress has fully intended to do this. We just have not been doing it. And the source of the funding has always been intended for this purpose. It has just never been spent. Well, not all of that after all. We are talking about a total program that costs about 2 cents out of every $100 of the Federal budget. And Congress has been, in fact, spending a good portion of it in. In fiscal year 2001, for example, there is a $1.4 billion request in the administration's budget. That is half of this program right there. In other words, we are talking about one penny out of every $100 of Federal spending, a minimal effect on the budget, but a maximum effect on the purposes of this act if this amendment is adopted.”