Dear Senator:

Our budget deficit has grown to more than $400 billion, making it more important than ever to exercise fiscal restraint in federal spending. In considering the Interior Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2004, Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS) asks you to consider the following recommendations that will protect taxpayers from unnecessary financial losses. We are particularly concerned with the following projects and programs:

Forest Products Line Item: The Forest Service Forest Products line item should be significantly reduced from past funding levels. The Government Accounting Office found the federal timber sale program lost $2.5 billion from 1992-1997, while a TCS analysis cites an additional loss of $407 million in fiscal year 1998. If Congress insists on continuing this program, they should protect taxpayers by mandating closed bids for federal timber sales, eliminating subsidies for timber road construction, and reducing the overall funding level of this program. Any increase in funding will result in increased subsidies to private timber companies at the taxpayer’s expense.

Fossil Energy Research & Development: Fossil fuel energy extraction and generation is a mature industry that has been receiving government subsidies for decades. The committee’s recommendation of $609 million for fossil energy research and development will give millions of taxpayer dollars to an industry that can afford to fund research and development efforts internally. We urge you to significantly reduce funding for these programs, including the Clean Coal Power Initiative.

FreedomCAR Initiative: The FreedomCAR initiative lacks meaningful benchmarks and has no requirement that the wealthy auto companies benefiting from this research will actually have to produce a commercially viable hydrogen car. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that elimination of this program would save taxpayers $55 million in fiscal year 2004 alone.

Hardrock Mining on Federal Lands: TCS supports continuation of the patent moratorium for hardrock mining, and urges codification of an indefinite moratorium on the sale of public lands. The give-away of federal lands with mineral reserves worth billions of dollars is a taxpayer outrage.

Taxpayers for Common Sense urges you to oppose unnecessary and irresponsible spending provisions in the Interior Appropriations bill that would place an undue burden on taxpayers. For more information on these requests please contact Shannon Collier at 202-546-8500 x127 or info@taxpayer.net.

Sincerely,

Jill Lancelot
President and Co-Founder