1. OMB Letter -- Urge the President to Come Clean on Climate Change
2. June 27, 2001 Associated Press Article -- Democrats demand climate change report
3. June 28, 2001 Associated Press Article -- Bush climate change programs fuel dispute

June 27, 2001

Director Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr.
Office of Management and Budget
Eisenhower Executive Office Building
17th St. and Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC 20503

Dear Director Daniels:

As you may know, pursuant to Section 566(b) of PL 106-429, the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act for FY 2001, the Administration is required to provide a "detailed account of all Federal agency obligations and expenditures for climate change programs and activities, domestic and international obligations for such activities in fiscal year 2001, and any plan for programs thereafter related to the implementation or the furtherance of protocols pursuant to, or related to negotiations to amend the FCCC in conjunction with the President’s submission of the Budget of the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2002."

That report has yet to be submitted to the Congress. It is important that Congress be aware of any and all activities that the Administration undertakes with regard to the issue of climate change. Recently the National Academy of Sciences, at the President’s request, studied the latest scientific findings of climate change. The NAS confirmed in its resulting report that climate change is real and that humans through the burning of fossil fuels, contribute to global warming. Congress plays a role in formulating United States climate change policy, and therefore must be aware of any and all actions the Administration is undertaking to address this problem.

In addition, it is our understanding that this report is overdue and should have been submitted with the President’s FY 2002 Budget to Congress. This raises some serious questions about the Administration’s overall climate change policy, and in particular this report.

1. What is the status of the report?

2. When will the report be released to Congress?

3. What is the scope of the report? For example, what financial years are used as the basis for the report?

4. Did the Administration take into account everything the federal government is doing in terms of climate change activities before the President declared the Kyoto Protocol dead, and was this report prepared and reviewed before the President made this decision?

Thank you for your timely consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

GEORGE MILLER
Member of Congress, 7th District

List of Cosigners onto OMB Letter

Jim McDermott, Pete Stark, Carolyn McCarthy, Tom Udall, Rush Holt, Dennis Moore, Lloyd Doggett, Brian Baird, Lynn Woolsey, Bill Pascrell, Jr., Sam Farr, Tammy Baldwin, Anna Eshoo, Earl Blumenauer, Susan Davis, Luis V. Gutierrez, Barney Frank, Michael E. Capuano, John F. Tierney, Ed Markey, Bill Delahunt, Tom Allen, Jay Inslee, Dennis J. Kucinich, Barbara Lee, John Conyers, Jr., Mike M. Honda, Robert Wexler, David Wu, Cynthia A. McKinney, John W. Olver, Robert A. Borski, Frank Pallone, Jr., James Oberstar, Bob Filner, Rosa DeLauro, Mark Udall

Associated Press, June 27, 2001

Democrats demand climate change report

By JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Democrats are telling the White House it must turn over to Congress any budget and planning documents related to the Bush administration's policies on global warming.

The effort is similar to pressure being brought to bear on Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force by congressional investigators who want Cheney's records as well.

In a letter Wednesday, Representative George Miller, D-California, and 35 other Democrats told White House budget director Mitch Daniels he must provide a detailed report of all spending proposals and any plan for programs related to climate change.

As part of the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act, they said, the administration is obliged to provide a ``detailed account of all federal agency obligations and expenditures for climate change programs and activities,'' along with plans for programs that might mean changes in the budget.

The issue of climate change and human factors, such as burning fossil fuels that result in heat-trapping atmospheric greenhouse gases, have taken center stage with President Bush's decision not to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and his rejection of a 1997 climate treaty broadly accepted but not formally adopted by European allies.

Cheney also sits on a separate climate change group that Bush assembled to review the science behind the phenomenon and hear from experts, then give the president a set of recommendations. The Cabinet-level review came in March, about two weeks after Bush reversed a campaign promise to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

``There seems to be no doubt that there is global warming going on. It shows up a lot of different ways,'' Cheney told The American Spectator on April 23 for its July/August issue. ``The question is whether it's a result of centuries-long natural cycles or whether man's activity over the last 50 or 60 years has contributed to it. The jury's still out.''

That was before the National Academy of Sciences reported to the White House this month, concluding the Earth's temperature is rising, mainly because of human activities, and saying dire climate changes could occur this century.

While Cheney has called for ``a public debate'' about the intermingled energy and climate issues, congressional Democrats complained they are being kept in the dark. They said the Bush administration's budget-related report is ``overdue and should have been submitted'' with its budget proposal.

White House officials had no immediate comment.

The General Accounting Office, which is the investigative arm of Congress, also has sent Cheney's lawyer a 10-page letter asserting a legal right to the lists of who met privately with his energy task force. It advised Cheney that it may step up its until-now polite requests with a formal demand for the information since it has legal authority to federal agency records under the law.

The White House team that developed the national energy plan that was released in June met with more than 130 interest groups, many of them industry-related Bush supporters who had private sessions with Cheney.

Representatives Henry Waxman, D-California, and John Dingell, D-Michigan, in April asked the GAO to provide them with information about the task force, including what it spent. The White House has said the GAO lacks authority to ask for names of participants but agreed it is entitled to financial records.

Associated Press, June 28, 2001

Bush climate change programs fuel dispute

By JOHN HEILPRIN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House says it will turn over a 50-page budget-related report on climate change to Congress, but only after House Democrats demanded a full accounting.

Representative George Miller, D-California, and 35 other Democrats had told White House budget director Mitch Daniels he must turn over any budget and planning documents related to the Bush administration's policies on global warming.

Bush spokesman Scott McLellan said the Office of Management and Budget would ``in the very near future'' honor that obligation.

``OMB is already in the final stages of pulling together all the information and it will be on its way to Congress in short order,'' he said late Wednesday. ``It's a 50-page document and OMB is just crossing the t's and dotting the i's.''

Democrats had sent a letter earlier Wednesday to Daniels saying that as part of the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act, President Bush's budget-writing staff is obliged to provide a ``detailed account of all federal agency obligations and expenditures for climate change programs and activities,'' along with plans for programs that might mean changes in the budget.

Their effort is similar to the pressure being brought to bear on Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force by congressional investigators and Democrats who also want those records.

President Bush's decision not to regulate carbon dioxide pollution and his rejection of a 1997 climate treaty has thrust onto center stage the issue of climate change and human factors such as the burning of fossil fuels that many scientists agree contributes to global warming.

Cheney also sits on a separate climate change group that Bush assembled to review the science behind the phenomenon and to issue a set of recommendations for which there is no public timetable.

The Cabinet-level review came in March, about two weeks after Bush reversed his campaign promise to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

The National Academy of Sciences reported to the White House this month, concluding the Earth's temperature is rising, mainly because of human activities, and saying dire climate changes could occur this century.

While Cheney has called for public debate about the intermingled energy and climate issues, congressional Democrats complained they are being kept in the dark. They said the Bush administration's budget-related report is ``overdue and should have been submitted'' with its budget proposal.

At the request of House Democrats, the General Accounting Office, which is the investigative arm of Congress, also has sent Cheney's lawyer a 10-page letter asserting a legal right to the lists of who met privately with his energy task force.

It advised Cheney that it may issue a formal demand for the information since it has legal authority to federal agency records under the law. The White House team that developed the national energy plan that was released in June met with more than 130 interest groups, many of them industry-related Bush supporters who had private sessions with Cheney.