For Immediate Release

June 28, 2007

HOUSE PASSES INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS BILL
PUGET SOUND FUNDS, LOCAL GRANTS INCLUDED

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House of Representatives last night approved the Interior and Environment appropriations bill that contains $15 million for the EPA's Puget Sound program in addition to wastewater treatment grants that will improve water quality in Hood Canal, Rep. Norm Dicks said.

            Rep. Dicks serves as chairman of the appropriations panel that developed the bill in the House.  It was approved by a vote of 272-to-155 last night after two days of debate on the House floor.

            Added to the bill by Rep. Dicks was a $2 million wastewater treatment grant for the City of Belfair and a $500,000 grant for wastewater facility construction on the Skokomish Indian Reservation -- both of which have an impact on the health of Hood Canal, Rep. Dicks said.

            In addition to these grants, the Interior funding bill continues the federal participation, through the U.S. Geological Survey, in the study of low oxygen levels that have led to declining fish runs in Hood Canal.  For the next fiscal year, $500,000 was included in the bill for the USGS research effort on the Canal.

            Also included under the historic preservation function of the bill is a federal program entitled Save America's Treasures, which aids in the preservation of architecturally-significant and historic structures around the nation.  Rep. Dicks was successful in adding to this program a grant of $150,000 for the restoration of the Bremerton Public Library, a 1938 WPA structure built in the art-deco style.

            All of these provisions were added to the Interior spending bill that had been approved by Rep. Dicks' subcommittee on May 23rd, featuring what the Congressman called "the best conservation budget we've had in more than a decade."  It contained the substantial funding increase for the Environmental Protection Agency's Puget Sound investigation and remediation effort, in addition to a $199 million increase in the budget for the National Park Service.

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