HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Funds for New Logging Roads

The House refused to cut $11.9 million from the National Forest Service’s fiscal 1994 budget for building logging roads. The amendment sought to prevent logging in some pristine forests. The

vote occurred as the House passed an Interior Department appropriations bill (HR 2520) providing $1.24 billion for the Forest Service. Sponsor John Porter (R-Ill.) said extending logging to roadless forests is economically unsound because they “are extremely remote, mountainous and not well-suited to timber harvesting.”

Opponent Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) called the amendment “another hit on the timber industry that has already been savaged because of the Endangered Species Act.”

The vote was 164 for and 262 against. A yes vote was to cut funding for National Forest Service road construction.

How They Voted

Rep. Beilenson (D): Yea

Rep. Berman (D): Yea

Rep. McKeon (R): Yea

Rep. Moorhead (R): Yea

Rep. Waxman (D): Yea

Operating Budget for Railroad Museum

The House refused to strip HR 2520 (above) of $3.1 million for the annual operating budget of the National Park Service’s Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pa. The operatingfunds follow federal expenditures of more than $60 million that helped build the museum for America’s railroad heyday.

Sponsor Michael A. Andrews (D-Tex.) said: “Steamtown is an embarrassment. It is a runaway train loaded with pork barrel. It’s time to throw the switch. Let’s stop it.”

Opponent Joseph M. McDade (R-Pa.) said: “Now comes this destructive amendment, well after the ninth inning, after $66 million in federal dollars has been appropriated, that says . . . we’re going to turn this into a rust bucket.”

The vote was 192 for and 229 against. A yes vote opposed federal funding of Steamtown’s operating budget.

How They Voted

Rep. Beilenson (D): Nay

Rep. Berman (D): Nay

Rep. McKeon (R): Yea

Rep. Moorhead (R): Yea

Rep. Waxman (D): Nay

Oil Shale Research Subsidy

The House voted 395 for and 37 against to remove all funds for oil shale research from HR 2520 (above). This eliminated $5 million for an ongoing Energy Department subsidy of research by several major oil companies to develop a commercially viable process to recover oil from rock.

Sponsor Philip R. Sharp (D-Ind.) said: “Supporters of oil shale (research) claim that the big breakthrough is always around the corner, but it never seems to arrive.”

Opponent James V. Hansen (R-Utah) said that in three states alone “we have more oil in shale than in the entire Saudi Arabia ... sitting there waiting to be developed.”

A yes vote opposed continued government subsidy of private sector oil shale research.

How They Voted

Rep. Beilenson (D): Yea

Rep. Berman (D): Yea

Rep. McKeon (R): Yea

Rep. Moorhead (R): Yea

Rep. Waxman (D): Yea

Medicare Entitlement Spending

The House blocked a Republican bid for lower Medicare and Medicaid entitlement spending in the $500-billion deficit-reduction bill (HR 2264) that was before a House-Senate conferencecommittee. With this procedural vote, the House shelved a non-binding GOP recommendation that conferees accept a Senate-approved entitlement figure that was $21 billion less than the comparable House-approved figure.

Supporter Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) said: “If you vote for this motion you are voting to save $21 billion.”

Opponent Martin Olav Sabo (D-Minn.) said Democrats are “ending that gridlock .... We are going to pass a real package. It is going to have real spending cuts.”

The vote was 184 for and 238 against. A yes vote was for more restraint on entitlement spending in the deficit-reduction legislation.

How They Voted

Rep. Beilenson (D): Nay

Rep. Berman (D): Nay

Rep. McKeon (R): Yea

Rep. Moorhead (R): Yea

Rep. Waxman (D): Nay

Source: Roll Call Report Syndicate