Clinton Asks Republicans for Preservation Funding

President Clinton on Saturday urged Congress to fund his efforts to preserve national parks and historic sites, saying GOP leaders’ tax plan “would actually roll back our progress” on environmental protection.

The president also announced a $13-million deal to buy 9,300 acres of land to protect Yellowstone National Park.

In a radio address taped while here on vacation, Clinton asked for the full $1 billion included in his budget proposal for a “lands legacy” initiative.

The money would be used to acquire and preserve 110 parks or historic sites in 40 states and territories. He also urged lawmakers to approve permanent funding of $1 billion a year for such projects, beginning in fiscal 2001.

The Republican-controlled Congress has approved less than half of Clinton’s request for the budget year that begins Oct. 1. He said that means national treasures could become victims of Republican leaders’ push for a large tax cut.

“The Republican leadership’s risky tax plan would actually roll back our progress,” Clinton said.

A House Republican leader responded by saying “there isn’t a single aspect” of the tax cut plan that would hurt the environment.

“This is just one more attempt by President Clinton to scare the American public with threats of dire consequences if sound Republican ideas are implemented,” Rep. J.C. Watts Jr. of Oklahoma, the House Republican Conference chairman, said in a statement.

In announcing the deal to acquire forest and grassland adjacent to Yellowstone National Park, Clinton said the purchase would help bison and other roaming animals survive and preserve underground springs that feed the park’s geysers.

“We’ll ensure that Old Faithful remains faithful for years to come,” he said.

Clinton called the agreement “another milestone in our effort to preserve the matchless wonders of America’s first national park” and said the government is acting to protect other sites.

Among them are ancient petroglyphs in New Mexico’s Bandelier National Monument, the Big Sur coast in California and the birthplace of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta. The Big Sur initiative would preserve and provide public access to an area along scenic Highway 1, as well as habitat for species including the peregrine falcon and the Santa Lucia fir tree.

With permanent funding, Clinton said, Civil War battlefields, the Lewis and Clark trail, the Cape Cod National Seashore and the Pelican Island refuge in Florida, the nation’s first wildlife sanctuary, also could be preserved.