Norman D. Dicks: “I rise in support of the FY 02 Interior appropriations act. I congratulate again the staff for producing a bill that I…”

“I rise in support of the FY 02 Interior appropriations act. I congratulate again the staff for producing a bill that I think we all can support. The subcommittee bill represents a significant improvement over the President's budget request. Most of the cuts have been restored, and a few very important programs received small increases. I want to also compliment our majority on the cooperative way the bill was crafted. The minority, as I suggested, was consulted extensively, and the majority went to great lengths to see that most of our concerns were addressed throughout the process. The most important thing to me in this bill, and to many of my colleagues, is the commitment to the Conservation Trust Fund which was negotiated last year. Under the agreement, conservation spending was nearly doubled in fiscal year 2001 and would gradually increase to fiscal year 2006.”