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Last updated: 04/04/03

BLM's 1998 Budget Proposal Aimed at Promoting Health of Public Lands, BLM Interim Director Sylvia Baca Tells Congress

The Bureau of Land Management's $1.1 billion budget request for 1998 seeks to promote the health of the public lands while advancing President Clinton's efforts to balance the budget, BLM Interim Director Sylvia Baca told a House subcommittee today.

In testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and Related Agencies, Baca noted that the BLM is requesting a Fiscal Year 1998 operating budget of $1.1 billion. That amount, when excluding $50 million in emergency contingency funding for wildland fire, represents a $31.9 million increase over the BLM's 1997 funding level.

Baca told the subcommittee that the BLM's 1998 budget request "will meet the priorities of sustaining the health and diversity of the public lands while fulfilling the President's commitment to cutting costs and balancing the budget."

In making the BLM's request today, Baca pointed out that the Bureau is among the top revenue-generating Federal agencies. She noted that the BLM's management of the public lands will generate an estimated $1.3 billion in 1998, an amount that will exceed its annual appropriation from Congress.

The revenues generated by BLM-managed lands come from such sources as mineral leasing, sales of materials and lands, timber and forest product sales, recreational user fees, and grazing fees. Some of these revenues will be shared with State and local governments, some will go to the U.S. Treasury, and others will be used by the BLM to support its program operations.

Baca highlighted the following items in her budget testimony:

• The BLM is requesting $6.4 million to manage the recently designated Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, which includes a $5 million increase. The money would be mainly used to prepare a management plan that will identify, assess, interpret and ensure protection of the Monument's scientific, historical, and economic values. The funds will also be used to improve visitor services.
• The Bureau is proposing $43.7 million for continued implementation of the President's Forest Plan. This money, which would be an increase of $1.1 million over the 1997 funding level, will, among other things, enable the BLM to complete most watershed analyses on BLM managed forests in the Pacific Northwest. Baca said the funding "will allow the BLM to meet the full-harvest level of 213.5 million board feet of timber that is called for in the President's Forest Plan."
• The BLM is requesting a $5 million increase to meet the growing demand for outdoor recreational opportunities on the public lands. Baca told the House subcommittee that the BLM expects to handle 76 million recreational visitor days to the public lands in 1998, an increase of 1.5 million visitor days over 1997.
• The BLM proposes to spend $8.8 million less in 1998 than it spent in 1997 on its Automated Land and Mineral Records System (ALMRS). "This planned reduction results from the project reaching major milestones," Baca said.

Overall, Baca said, the BLM's 1998 budget request would enable the agency "to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations." The BLM seeks to accomplish that mission, Baca said, by working with local citizens "to reach consensus-based solutions where resource conflicts exist." She said the BLM's establishment of citizen-based Resource Advisory Councils (RACs) is a key example of how the Bureau is working with local communities. Twenty-three RACs, which advise the BLM on rangeland health standards, are now operating in the Western States.

The BLM, an agency of the Department of the Interior, manages 264 million acres of public land, most of it located in 12 Western States, including Alaska. The agency manages this land for multiple uses, such as hunting, fishing, camping, grazing, mining, and timber harvesting.

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