President Clinton is proposing a record $42.5 billion in FY 2001 to protect our natural resources, our communities and families, and the global environment. The proposed environment budget represents an 11 percent increase over FY 2000 and a 36 percent increase over FY 1993. It includes major initiatives to preserve America's lands legacy, combat global warming, protect tropical forests, end childhood lead poisoning, and build more livable communities.

A Permanent Lands Legacy for America. In FY 2000, the President secured $652 million, a 42 percent increase for his Lands Legacy initiative. For FY 2001, the President is proposing $1.4 billion, the largest one-year investment ever in conserving America's land and coastal resources. In addition, the President is proposing a new, protected budget category to preserve this higher level of funding in future years. More than half this dedicated funding would be used to support state and local conservation efforts. For FY 2001, the President proposes:
Helping Communities Protect Wildlife and Open Space -- $521 million, almost four times current funding, to help state, local, and tribal governments protect wildlife and local green spaces. Priorities include protecting threatened farmland, working forests, wetlands, and urban parks. This includes a new $100 million grant program to help states protect non-game wildlife.
Saving Natural and Historic Treasures -- $450 million, a 7 percent increase, for federal acquisition and protection of critical lands, including: wildlife-rich bayous in the Lower Mississippi Delta, giant sequoias in California's Sierra Nevada, Civil War battlefields, the historic Lewis and Clark trail, fragile Southern California desert, and the Florida Everglades.
Providing Special Assistance to Coastal Areas -- $429 million, a 159 percent increase, to protect ocean and coastal resources, including $100 million for a new program to help coastal states address environmental impacts of existing offshore oil and gas development, and $100 million to help state, local and tribal efforts to restore coastal salmon in the Pacific Northwest.

Meeting the Challenge of Global Warming. The President is proposing $2.4 billion – a 42 percent increase -- to combat global climate change, and $1.7 billion for scientific research into factors influencing climate and the likely consequences of global warming. Highlights include:
Promoting Clean Energy at Home and Abroad -- $289 million to develop technologies that convert crops and other “biomass” into clean fuels and other products; and over $200 million, a 105 percent increase, to promote the export of clean energy technologies to developing nations.
Moving New Technology into the Marketplace -- $201 million (and a total of $4 billion over five years) in tax credits for the purchase of energy-efficient cars, homes, and appliances, and for the production of wind, solar, and biomass power.
Advancing Clean Energy Research -- $1.4 billion, a 30 percent increase, to develop and deploy renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies for the buildings, transportation, industry and utility sectors; and to research coal and natural gas efficiencies and carbon sequestration.
Helping Local Clean Air Efforts – $85 million for a new Clean Air Partnership Fund for state and local projects that reduce both greenhouse gases and air pollutants like soot and smog.

Protecting Forests and Biodiversity Around the World. The President is proposing $150 million for a new Greening the Globe initiative to help stem the loss of forests worldwide – especially tropical forests, which support more than half the known species on earth. The initiative will help developing nations strengthen their economies by preserving their forests. It includes:
Targeted Conservation Investments -- $100 million, a 60-percent increase, for programs at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that help more than 60 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America conserve their forests and other natural areas.
Debt-for-Nature Swaps -- $37 million, almost three times current funding, to relieve developing countries of debt owed to the United States when they commit to invest in forest conservation.
Research and Wildlife Protections – $10 million to protect wildlife habitat and research causes and prevention of forest fires; $3 million to protect endangered elephants, tigers, and rhinos.
Monitoring Forest Loss from Space – A new program led by USAID and NASA to compile the first comprehensive satellite maps of the world's tropical forests, and to work with national and international partners to regularly monitor and report on future changes in forest cover.

Building Livable Communities. The President is proposing $9.3 billion, a 14 percent increase, for the Administration's Livable Communities initiative, which helps communities grow in ways that enhance their quality of life and ensure strong, sustainable economic growth. Priorities include:
Community Transportation Choices -- $9.1 billion to help ease traffic congestion, including a record $6.3 billion for light rail and other transit systems; $1.6 billion for innovative local programs that ease congestion while reducing air pollution; and $468 million for an expanded passenger rail fund.
Better America Bonds -- $700 million in tax credits over five years to fund $10.75 billion in new bond authority for state, tribal, local investments to save green space, create or restore urban parks, protect water quality, and clean up brownfields.
Crime Data Sharing -- $125 million for grants to state and local governments to improve public safety through data sharing and the use of advanced crime-solving technologies.
“Smart Growth” Partnerships -- $25 million to promote strategic regional “smart growth” planning in urban and rural communities.

Protecting Children From Lead Poisoning. The President is proposing $165 million to launch a 10-year strategy to end childhood lead poisoning by eliminating lead hazards, strengthening enforcement, advancing research, and improving health monitoring and intervention. FY 2001 priorities include:
Making Homes Lead-Safe -- $120 million, a 50 percent increase, for grants and other Housing and Urban Development efforts to reduce lead paint hazards in low-income homes with children under six.
Increased Enforcement -- $6 million for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice to increase public education and enforcement of lead-disclosure rules.

Promoting Conservation on the Farm. The President is proposing $3 billion, a $1.3 billion increase over currently authorized levels, for voluntary programs that help farmers protect water quality and wildlife habitat. A new $600 million Conservation Security Program would provide additional income to family farmers who adopt comprehensive plans to curb erosion and protect water supplies from polluted runoff. Other proposed increases would expand efforts to restore habitat, preserve streamside buffer zones, and protect farmland threatened by sprawl.

Restoring the Great Lakes. The President is proposing a new $50 million initiative to help state and local governments restore polluted “areas of concern” in the Great Lakes so they can be used for fishing, swimming, boating and urban redevelopment. Matching grants could be used to clean up contaminated sediments, control stormwater, restore wetlands, acquire greenways and buffers, and control polluted runoff. State or local governments would provide at least 40 percent of project costs, resulting in a total investment of more than $80 million.

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