Maurice Hinchey: “this is a very good Interior appropriations bill; but the problem is that the rule failed to protect two very important…”

“this is a very good Interior appropriations bill; but the problem is that the rule failed to protect two very important provisions of the bill that were put in there by the Subcommittee on the Interior and endorsed by the full Committee on Appropriations on a bipartisan basis. These two provisions are critical to protecting a program to restore the natural system of the Florida Everglades. This restoration project is costing the people of the United States literally billions of dollars. It is the most comprehensive and ambitious environmental restoration project perhaps in the history of our world, certainly our country. What happens is that one of the provisions that is not protected by the rule would ensure that the Department of the Interior is made a full partner with the Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Florida in determining how this restoration project goes forward, and that science is used to make sure that the project is carried out in a way that achieves its objectives. Without the Department of Interior as a coequal partner, we are not going to get the kind of results that we want here.”