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     HOUSE FLOOR VOTE EXPECTED ON 1996 INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS
-            Bill full of anti-environment provisions -
 
     The House is expected to vote Tuesday, November 7, on the
1996 Interior Appropriations bill conference report.  The
legislation is chock-full of horrible environmental provisions,
and by reasonable measure, should be voted down.  Yet, because
the House is led by an extreme anti-environment block, the
outcome is unclear.
 
     Here are some of the worst examples:  
 
MILKING AMERICA'S MINERALS:  The bill contains language virtually
guaranteeing the repeal of the mining moratorium.  The moratorium
would end as soon as any legislation is approved by the House and
Senate "containing provisions relating to mining," no matter what
those provisions are.  This despite an earlier vote by the full
House directing the conference committee to keep the moratorium
intact.  At stake are the health of America's waterways and
public land and $15 billion in publically-owned minerals.
 
MAULING THE MOJAVE:  The bill provides one lousy dollar to manage
the entire 1.5 million acre Mojave National Park Preserve.  This
absurd funding is designed to prevent the National Park Service
from managing the Mojave, thereby putting the fragile California
desert at risk from off-road vehicles and other assaults.
 
TEARING APART THE TONGASS:  The bill mandates a huge increase in
timber cutting in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, where
the Forest Service would be required to adopt a management plan
it had abandoned as inadequate to protect wildlife.
 
MISCELLANEOUS HORRORS:  Also included in the bill are a
moratorium on listing and critical habitat designation for
endangered species and the gutting of a ecosystem-based
management project for the interior Columbia River Basin.
 
 
MAKE THE CALL TODAY TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AT 202-244-3121 AND
ASK HIM/HER TO VOTE NO ON THE INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS BILL
CONFERENCE REPORT.
 
DON'T FORGET TO CALL THE WHITE HOUSE AS WELL AT 202-456-1111 AND
REMIND PRESIDENT CLINTON HE PROMISED TO VETO THIS ATROCIOUS BILL.
 
For more information, call Jerry Greenberg at The Wilderness
Society, 202-429-2608.