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Federal
Register Watch by Mike Powers May
26 - 30, 2003
The Federal
Register is the official daily publication for Rules, Proposed Rules,
and Notices of Federal agencies and organizations, as well as Executive
Orders and other Presidential Documents.
This column attempts to summarize the highlights (or lowlights)
of the Federal Register during the preceding week. Instructions
for subscribing to the Federal Register can be found at the end of the
column. MAY
27, 2003: AGRICULTURE
DEPARTMENT (USDA) – SEMI-ANNUAL
AGENDA Provides
summary descriptions of regulations being developed by the USDA,
including production quotas,
price supports, mandatory marketing orders, subsidized loans, and
subsidized crop insurance for every type of agricultural producer
– from tobacco, peanut, wheat, and livestock farmers to sugarcane,
rice, corn, and cotton producers. This
document highlights nearly every misguided policy promoted by
interventionist, self-serving politicians.
As a result, Americans are saddled with an inefficient
socialized farming system that limits production and artificially
increases the prices that unsuspecting consumers pay for domestic
agricultural products. http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/15mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/ua030503/ua030503.txt PRESIDIO
TRUST – The Presidio in San Francisco, founded in 1776, was first used as a Spanish military installation and later operated by the Mexican Army before the U.S. Army took control of it in 1846. It remained an operating military base until its closure in 1994, when it was transferred to the National Park Service. After
the base closure, the federal government had the opportunity to sell the
valuable property, which spans 1,480 acres from the Pacific Ocean to the San Francisco Bay, and
perhaps use the money to pay down existing federal debt.
Instead, the
politicians chose to create a new taxpayer money pit.
President
Clinton signed the Presidio Trust Act into law on November 12, 1996,
establishing the trust as a federal corporation. Although the act
required the park to become financially sustainable by the year 2013, it
guaranteed millions in federal
subsidies in the interim. The
Base Closure and Realignment Act that transferred the Presidio to the
National Park Service also provided federal funds for cleanup.
Originally, the plan was to spend $6 million on the environmental
cleanup. However, the Army
spent more than $123 million in
the first five years. Most
of the cleanup involved removing contaminated soil from landfills that
include substances ranging from building debris and household garbage to
hazardous materials. But unknown contamination, such as unexploded
munitions, may have existed as well. The
Trust enjoys annual federal subsidies in excess of $25
million per year to finance an administrative bureaucracy that
employs hundreds of full-time staff and professional consultants. Additionally,
the National Park Service plans to spend more than $600
million on improvements to the land. Though
it is debatable whether or not this federal boondoggle will reach
sustainability by 2013, there is no doubt that it will remain a drag on
federal taxpayers for years to come. http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/15mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/ua030503/ua030541.txt MAY
28, 2003: NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION –
$35
MILLION IN GRANTS FOR THE “FISHERIES DISASTERS PROGRAM” This
program provides financial assistance to the shrimp industries in the
Gulf and South Atlantic. Approximately
$35 million will be available
for FY 2003 for projects that include: personal
assistance, with priority given to food, energy needs, housing
assistance, transportation fuel, and other urgent needs; assistance
for small businesses including fishermen, fish processors, and related
businesses serving the fishing industry; domestic
product marketing and seafood promotion; state seafood testing
programs; development of limited entry programs for the fishery; funding
or other incentives to ensure widespread and proper use of turtle
excluder devices and bycatch reduction devices in the fishery; and voluntary capacity reduction programs for shrimp fisheries under
limited access. Surely,
the shrimp industry is more than willing to receive federal handouts,
which are likely to lessen production incentives.
But taxpayers and seafood lovers will pay the price of government
intervention that results in less money in their pockets and higher
prices at the market. http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/03-13272.htm PRESIDENTIAL
DOCUMENTS – PRAYER
FOR PEACE, MEMORIAL DAY President
Bush proclaims Memorial Day, May 26, 2003, as a day of prayer for
permanent peace. Meanwhile,
many thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians and over 200 American troops have died during the Bush-led
“Operation Iraqi Freedom.” So,
as you pray for peace on Memorial Day, be sure to remember all those who
died in vain as a result of recent and previous unprovoked U.S. military
aggressions abroad. http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/03-13508.htm To
subscribe to the Federal Register Table of Contents LISTSERV electronic
mailing list, go to http://listserv.access.gpo.gov
and select Online mailing list archives, FEDREGTOC-L, Join or leave the
list (or change settings); then follow the instructions.
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