Friday, June 30,2006

Appropriations

10

Offshore drilling
Feinstein moves to force oil
companies to resume
paying suspended royalties

The Legislative News-Da ilyfrom Congressiona l Qua rterly

Swift Actio.n Promised on Detainees

Bush reaches out to Congress following high court ruling on Guantanamo
BY KEITH PERINE

CQ STAFF WRITER

The Supreme Court

ruling rejecting the validity of military commissions established to
try enemy combatants is
spurring
President
Bush to do something
he has tried hard to
avoid: work with Congress to devise ground
rules for combating terrorism.
The court's decision
Thursday is a major set- The Supreme Court ruling prodded Bush to pledge to work with Congress on
back for Bush, who has new laws for dealing with enemy combatants being held at Guantanamo Bay.
claimed expansive powers on a broad array of fronts in his counThe high court ruled 5-3 in Hamdan v.
terterrorism efforts, while the RepublicanRumsfeld that Bush did not have the aucontrolled Congress has largely stayed
thority to establish a military commission
silent.
to try an alleged enemy combatant held
Now, lawmakers from both parties are
since 2002 at the U.S. naval base at Guancalling for a legislative response to the detanamo Bay, Cuba.
cision.
Enemy continued on page 29

Stevens Poaches Funds for Salmon Earmark

BY CATHARINE RICHERT, CQ STAFF WRITER

Republican Ted Stevens is looking out for

Alaska's salmon industry- and for babies
everywhere.
For the third year in a row, Alaska's senior senator has set aside money in the fis cal 2007 Agriculture spending bill (HR
5384) for development of baby food made
from salmon. The $450,000 earmark in the
Appropriations Committee's report gives
direction regarding part of a $1 million line
item for "alternative salmon product research."
Critics say the proposed spending shows
why Congress needs tighter earmark rules.
Baby food companies, they argue, should
pay for their own research.

But supporters of the spending, including the two organizations that would receive
the money, say government funding is crucial to state economies and jobs creation.
Stevens says the research will also help improve child nutrition.
"Given its overwhelming nutritional value for children, Sen. Stevens believes finding ways to incorporate omega-3 into baby
food and formula is a project worthy of attention and the [Agriculture Department]
agrees," said Lindsay Hayes, the senator's
spokeswoman.
Scott Smiley has been perfecting salmon
baby food for a few years. He works for the
Fisheries Industrial Technology Center, a
Baby Food continued on page 30

Note to readers: Because of the July Fourth holiday,

the next issue of CQ Today will be published July 10.
A summary of this week's legislative action will be
posted Friday night on the Web in PDF format at
www.cq.com/weeklyreport/.
During the recess, CQ Today subscribers will
receive special news updates in their e-newsletter,
CQToday Extra.To subscribe, send a request
to contracts@cq.com .

PULSE OF
CONGRESS
EDITED

A.

Bv GREG McDoNALD Lill 11111111 IlL

NOTHING LIKE LEAVING TOWN With a Few

Loose Ends Still Flapping

As lawmakers packed up and prepared

to head home for the July Fourth recess,
something was clearly missing.
Where were the leadership threats to
work through the weekend? Where was
the rogue member forcing Congress to
stay in town just to prove a point?
Instead, the House and Senate eased
peacefully into a weeklong break, even
heading out a little early Thursday to catch
the annual congressional baseball game.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, RTenn., had hoped to force a vote on reducing the estate tax, but his efforts to
sweeten the bill (HR 5638) enough to get
60 votes fell flat.
And a conference committee's longsuffering effort to reconcile legislation
that would overhaul the nation's pension
system (HR 2830, S 1783) gave up the
ghost days earlier.
The House failed to appoint conferees
to the lobbying overhaul bill (S 2349, HR
4975), pushing that task into July.
Appropriations Chairman Jerry Lewis,
R-Calif., also failed to deliver on his boast
continued on page 15
Volume 42, Number 99

Page30

CQToday, Friday, June 30,2006

Baby food
the numerous fishermen and
Alaska's more than 80 fish processing companies.
Smiley said baby food companies are interested in his research,
but declined to name them.

continued from page 1

branch of the Alaska university

system in charge of improving
fishing practices and fish products that has teamed up with the
nonprofit Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation on the
baby food project.
Researchers in Smiley's division are using grant money from
the state research and education
branch of the Agriculture Department to develop two baby
food styles: puree and chunky.
Smiley says nutrients in pink
salmon from the waters around
the Alaskan coast improve infant
development.

Alaska Salmon
Alaska projects a salmon
harvest of almost 167 million
fish this year, a decline from
the record 2005 harvest of
221 million but in line with
the 10-year average. Here is
the breakdown by species.

'Cannery Cartel'

The baby food project highlights an ongoing debate over how

lawmakers' pet projects should be
subsidized. In the aftermath of
2006 Alaskan Salmon
ethics scandals surrounding forHarvest Projection
mer Reps. Randy "Duke" Cun(in thousands)
ningham, R-Calif. , and Tom DeLay, R-Texas, some critics want
Chinook 780
lawmakers to justify their earSockeye 35,636
marks.
--- t--------- ------ ------ ----------------------------------- Taxpayers should not be reCoho 4,959
sponsible for developing and
Health Food
Pink 108,005
sustaining a niche market in
Alaska, said Tom Schatz , presiThe research is also good for
Chum 17,552
dent of the watchdog organizathe health of Alaska's fishing intion
Citizens Against Governdustry. Finding new markets for
Total 166,932 ..::====-=========::::::~wild Alaskan salmon - an inment Waste.
SOURCE: Alaska Department offish and Game
"This is a cannery cartel at our
dustry that has suffered recently
expense," he said.
from competition with foreign
Keith Ashdown, vice president
producers of cheaper farm- raised
salmon- is a lot easier with federal monof policy for Taxpayers for Common Sense,
salmon baby food, it would own all rights
ey, Smiley said.
said such projects usually do not produce
to the product, Smiley explained, and probmuch for the taxpayers who fund them.
"Without federal research funding for
ably would contract with only one or two
"I have two kids," Ashdown said. "I didfish utilization research, the largest embusinesses in Alaska to catch and process
n't feed them fish [as babies] and I don't
ployment sector in Alaska would have even
fish.
know who would. The bigger issue is if
greater troubles than they do already," he
But if the technology is developed by
said.
we're ever going to get anything from this.
federally funded groups, any company
If one baby food company developed
This is not a national priority."
can tap into the new market, including
Ashdown said earmarks distort the budget process. If the Agriculture Department
viewed Stevens' project as particularly
Enemy continued from page 29
Law, Ethics and National Security, said the
worthwhile, it would have included money
decision was a shot across the Bush adminreturning to Congress to seek the authorifor it in its budget requests, he said.
istration's bow that the court does not inty he believes necessary."
The annual Agriculture appropriations
tend to abdicate its role as "the arbiter of
bill funds grants by the department's CoThe court left open the possibility that
what the law is and how it shapes the presoperative State Research, Education, and
ident's authority."
Bush could simply try Guantanamo Bay deExtensions Services arm.
tainees in courts-martial under American
Besides Scalia, Justices Clarence Thomas
Millions of dollars have been dedicated
military law. "Nothing in the record before
and Samuel A. Ali to Jr. dissented from the
to researching new salmon markets and
us demonstrates that it would be impracticourt's opinion. Thomas, who has been on
cable to apply court-martial rules in this
products since 2000, but it was not until rethe court since 1991, read his dissent from
case," Stevens wrote.
cently that money was specifically desigthe bench for the first time ever.
But the administration and GOP connated for the baby food project.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. did not
The Agriculture Department would sogressional leaders appear to be intent on
participate in the case. As an appellate
licit applications for the grant funded by
codifying rules for military commissions
judge, Roberts participated in the 2005 rulinstead. Senior administration officials
Stevens' earmark, although the money is
ing by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
earmarked for a specific project in a speDistrict of Columbia Circuit in the case that
observed that the court did not rule out
the concept of such commissions altocific state.
found in favor of the government. +
As far as he knows, Smiley said, he and his
gether.
Scott L. Silliman, executive director of
colleagues are the only people developing
Elizabeth B. Crowley contributed to this
Duke University School of Law's Center on
fishy baby food. +
story.