Reid votes for appropriations funding

September 25, 8:49 PMSen. Harry Reid ExaminerTerry Martinez

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AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke, File

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and 76% of the United States Senate voted yesterday to approve funding in the amount of $32.3 Billion for fiscal year 2009 operating expenses and project specific capital funding for the Department of the Interior, Environment and other specified government agencies.

H.R. 2996, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act 2010, was approved at $25,000 under the President’s request and at a 17% increase over fiscal year 2009 appropriations levels. Three hundred and fifty earmarks totaling $150 million are included in the allocations.

The 17% annual increase comes on top of $10.9 Billion in stimulus funds for the specified agencies for a combined total increase of 39% over fiscal year 2009 funding levels.

The largest percentile increase goes toward Climate Change with $420 million in cross-agency funding, an increase of 82 percent above FY 2009 funding. The National Gallery of Art received a 36% increase, U.S. Fish and Wildlife 13.6%, the National Endowment for the Arts 10%, the Bureau of Land Management 7.6% and the Smithsonian a 6% increase.

Project specific funding includes $20 million for the design of the new National Museum of African American History and Culture. It also allocates $45.5 Million for the processing of applications for permit to drill on public lands. 

The bill was sponsored by Norman Dicks of Washington, Chair of the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies. Total vote tally was 77-21.