Appropriations bill FY2000, Energy and Water Development

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Department of Defense-Civil

Title II: Department of the Interior

Title III: Department of Energy

Title IV: Independent Agencies

Title V: Rescissions

Title VI: General Provisions

Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2000 - Title I: Department of Defense - Civil - Makes appropriations to the Department of the Army and its Corps of Engineers for FY 2000 for: (1) authorized civil functions of the Department of the Army relating to rivers and harbors, flood control, beach erosion, and related purposes; (2) expenses necessary for the collection and study of information related to such purposes; (3) the prosecution of authorized water development and related projects; (4) certain flood control projects on the Mississippi River and its tributaries; (5) water development projects operation and maintenance; (6) the navigable waters and wetlands regulatory program; (7) formerly utilized sites remedial action program; and (8) general expenses.

Authorizes the use of water development and related project funds for: (1) shoreline protection measures in Assateague Island, Maryland; and (2) construction of an emergency outlet from Devils Lake, North Dakota, to the Sheyenne River (subject to a specified condition).

(Sec. 101) Bars application of a fully allocated funding policy to projects for which funds are identified in specified Committee reports. Directs the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers, to undertake such projects using continuing contracts.

(Sec. 102) States that agreements proposed for execution by the Assistance Secretary of the Army for civil works or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers shall be limited to certain amounts in each fiscal year of credits and reimbursements per project, and of total credits and reimbursements for all applicable projects.

(Sec. 103) Prohibits the use of funds under this Act to revise the Missouri River Master Water Control Manual when it is made known to the pertinent Federal authority that such revision provides for an increase in the springtime water release program during the spring heavy rainfall and snow melt period in States with rivers draining into the Missouri River below the Gavins Point Dam.

Title II: Department of the Interior - Makes FY 2000 appropriations to the Department of the Interior for: (1) the Central Utah Project; (2) the Bureau of Reclamation, water and related resources;(3) Bureau of Reclamation Loan Program Account; (4) Central Valley Project Restoration Fund; (5) California Bay-Delta Restoration; and (6) general administrative expenses.

(Sec. 202) Declares that funds under this title for Drought Emergency Assistance shall be made available primarily for the leasing of water for specified drought related purposes from willing lessors, in compliance with existing State laws and administered under State water priority allocation. Allows such leases to provide an option to purchase, subject to certain conditions.

Title III: Department of Energy - Makes appropriations to the Department of Energy (DOE) for FY 2000 for: (1) energy supply programs; (2) non-defense environmental management; (3) the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund; (4) general DOE science activities; (5) the Nuclear Waste Disposal Fund; (6) DOE administration; (7) Office of the Inspector General; (8) atomic energy defense weapons activities; (9) defense environmental restoration and waste management; (10) defense facilities closure projects; (11) defense environmental management privatization; (12) other DOE defense activities; (13) defense nuclear waste disposal; (14) the various geographical power marketing administrations of DOE (including specified costs for the hydroelectric facilities at the Falcon and Amistad Dams under the Western Area Power Administration); and (15) the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

(Sec. 301) Prohibits the use of funds under this Act to: (1) award a management and operating contract without competitive procedures unless the Secretary of Energy (Secretary) grants a waiver on a case-by-case basis; (2) award, amend, or modify a contract in a manner that deviates from the Federal Acquisition Regulation, unless the Secretary grants a waiver on a case-by-case basis; (3) develop or implement a workforce restructuring plan for DOE employees, or to provide them with enhanced severance payments or other benefits; (4) augment specified funds made available for severance payments and other benefits and community assistance grants under specified law; (5) prepare or initiate Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for a program that has not been funded by Congress; (6) establish or maintain independent centers at a DOE laboratory or facility unless such funds have been specifically identified in the budget submission; (7) restart the High Flux Beam Reactor; or (8) dispose of any transuranic waste containing specified plutonium concentrations in the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.

(Sec. 310) Prohibits the expenditure of funds after December 31 of each year under a covered contract for the management and operation of specified National Laboratories unless the expenditure is made in accordance with a Laboratory Funding Plan approved by the Secretary.

(Sec. 314) Denies funds to the Administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to enter into any agreement to perform energy efficiency services outside the legally defined Bonneville service territory, with certain exceptions.

(Sec. 316) Amends the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act to provide that charges included by the BPA for the recovery of certain costs of fish and wildlife protection shall not exceed those amounts which the BPA Administrator forecasts will be expended during the period for which such rates are established.

Title IV: Independent Agencies - Makes appropriations for FY 2000 for: (1) the Appalachian Regional Commission; (2) the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board;(3) the Denali Commission; (4) the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC); (5) the NRC Office of the Inspector General; (6) the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board; and (7) the Tennessee Valley Authority Fund.

Title V: Rescissions - Rescinds specified amounts previously appropriated for designated projects with respect to: (1) Department of Defense-Civil, Department of the Army; and (2) Department of Energy, Southeastern Power Administration, and Nuclear Waste Disposal.

Title VI: General Provisions - Declares the sense of Congress that all equipment and products bought with funds under this Act should be American-made. Requires each Federal agency to give notice of this policy to any entity to which it provides financial assistance or contracts. Bars contracts funded under this Act from being awarded to any person determined by a court or Federal agency to have falsely labeled products as made in America.

(Sec. 603) Prohibits the use of any funds appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act to determine the final point of discharge for the interceptor drain for the San Luis Unit until the Secretary of the Interior and the State of California develop a plan, which shall conform to California water quality standards approved by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, to minimize any detrimental effect of the San Luis drainage waters.

Directs the Secretary of the Interior to classify the costs of the Kesterson Reservoir Cleanup and the San Joaquin Valley Drainage Programs as reimbursable or nonreimbursable and collected until fully repaid pursuant to the "Cleanup Program--Alternative Repayment Plan" and the "SJVDP--Alternative Repayment Plan" described in a specified report. Makes San Luis Unit beneficiaries of drainage service or drainage studies responsible to reimburse the United States fully for any future obligations of Federal funds relating to, or providing for, such service or studies for the San Luis Unit.

(Sec. 604) Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 to extend from September 30, 1998, through September 30, 2000, the NRC's authority to assess annual charges.

(Sec. 605) Amends P.L. 105-277 (Making Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1999) to repeal the program for Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, and State of South Dakota restoration of terrestrial wildlife habitat loss that occurred as a result of flooding related to the Big Bend and Oahe projects carried out as part of the Pick-Sloan Missouri River Basin program.

(Sec. 607) Prohibits the use of funds appropriated under this Act to issue promulgations designed to implement the 1997 Kyoto Protocol regarding climate change which has not been submitted to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification.

(Sec. 608) Extends from FY 2000 to FY 2002 the proscription against specified withdrawals from either the United States Enrichment Corporation Fund (USEC Fund), or the Working Capital Account, for specified gaseous diffusion plants.

Instructs the Secretary of the Treasury to invest in U.S. obligations such portion of the Fund as is not required to meet current withdrawals.

(Sec. 609) Redesignates the "Cascade Reservoir" as "Lake Cascade".

(Sec. 610) Amends the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act to decrease from $2 million in 1997 dollars to $500,000 in 1997 dollars the annual cost of implementing the Northwest Power Planning Council's mandate to establish an Independent Scientific Review Panel and Scientific Peer Review Groups, and their activities. Repeals the expiration date of such mandate and activities to make them permanent.

(Sec. 611) Instructs the Secretary of the Army to undertake certain functions and activities at eligible sites where remediation has not been completed as part of the implementation of the "Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program".