Washington Update

NWU Radio Script

7-8-01

Though appointments to various departments in the federal government have been slow in Washington, D.C., under the new administration because of the November election fiasco, it appears that the Department of Interior's top water policy positions will be filled in the next few weeks.

According to a report from Joe Raeder of the Ferguson Group to the Family Farm Alliance several of those to be appointed were recommended to the Bush Administration by the alliance.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a June 27 hearing on the nomination of John W. Keys, III, of Utah, to be Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation. Keys was well received by the panel and his nomination is expected to be approved.

Last month, the committee held a hearing on the nomination of Bennett Raley of Colorado to be Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science, a position that oversees the Bureau and the U.S. Geological Survey. Raley's nomination also is expected to be approved once the Energy Committee sends it to the full Senate for a vote, which may happen next month.

Both Keys, a retired Bureau regional director, and Raley, a Denver-based water attorney, were among those the Family Farm Alliance recommended for water policy positions at the Department.

A member of the Alliance Advisory Committee, Jason Peltier, general manager of the Central Valley Project Water Association in California, has been appointed by Interior Secretary Gale Norton to be special assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science. Peltier will handle Western water and ESA issues. His wife, Jean-Marie Peltier, recently accepted an appointment as a special advisor on agriculture to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

On June 29, Secretary Norton announced the appointment of Thomas Weimer to be the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science. Weimer, a senior House committee staffer, was the Chief of Staff to former Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan, and he has been serving as an advisor to Secretary Norton since January.

Peltier's and Weimer's positions do not require Senate confirmation.

In other news from Washington, Raeder notes that on June 28 the House approved the fiscal 2002 appropriations bill providing $691 million for the Bureau of Reclamation's Water and Related Resources Account, which funds the agency's principal functions, including project operations and maintenance.

The appropriations are $12 million more than the current funding level and $43 million more than was requested by the Bush Administration.

The Family Farm Alliance participated in a campaign this year with other western water groups to have the President and Congress reverse years of declining budgets for the Bureau. House and Senate Budget Committees responded with significant funding increases.

The Bureau funding bill passed by the House now moves to the Senate where committee action is expected after the July 4 recess.