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Duane A. Thompson
Analyst
Environment and Natural Resources Policy Division
January 31, 1996
96-107 ENR |
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The Congress and the White House have agreed to abolish the Bureau of Mines within the Department of the Interior (DOI). H.R. 1977, appropriating funds for the DOI, would have provided $64 million for the "orderly closure" of the Bureau of Mines within 90 days of enactment. Orderly closure entails relocating certain functions to other agencies and completely eliminating others. H.R. 1977 was vetoed for unrelated reasons, but an attempt to override that veto was unsuccessful. In its latest action, January 26, 1996, Congress passed a continuing resolution (P.L. 104-99) affirming the closure of the Bureau and the transfer of some functions to other agencies.
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| The Bureau of Mines was established in 1910 to address an alarming number of fatalities and injuries in coal mines. Technologies developed by the Bureau helped to minimize mine accidents, primarily from methane and coal dust explosions. Many of these technologies were subsequently refined and marketed by the mining equipment industry. |
| Congress subsequently added other programs. Among these were collecting and disseminating mineral commodity data, advancing mining technology to increase productivity, analyzing mining and minerals policy, and administering the National helium stockpile. |
| Shortly after World War II, the Bureau advised other Government agencies about establishing and managing a National strategic stockpile of minerals and materials. The stockpile was intended to sustain U.S. military forces during a sustained conflict. In the 1970s (following the oil embargo), the Bureau's activities were again expanded to include synthetic fuels research using coal as a feedstock. Most recently, the Bureau has been augmenting the activities of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) on such problems as mine waste cleanup. |
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| However, events during the past 20 years have rendered many of its programs expendable, resulting in an erosion of support for the Bureau, both in Congress and the White House. First, mine safety has advanced. Further reduction in safety hazards might be attained from stricter enforcement of existing laws and regulations, but that is a primary responsibility of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). Second, few believe that a strategic stockpile is now necessary. The tools of defense have changed sufficiently to reduce or eliminate the need to stockpile what, at one time, was two-to-three years' of military consumption of these materials. Third, as interest in energy research during the energy crises increased during the 1970s, Bureau fuels research was transferred to the newly created Department of Energy. |
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| The growing lack of support for the Bureau of Mines has been reflected in its budget. Funding cuts to BOM are not a recent phenomenon; the Bureau's budget peaked in the early to mid-1970s when research dollars flowed into alternative energy technologies. |
| More recently, from FY1990 to FY1993, the Bureau's annual budget authority was approximately $175 million; in FY1994, its budget decreased to $169.4 million and in FY1995 it dropped again, to $152.4 million. The FY1996 Presidential budget request proposed to cut funding for the Bureau of Mines further, to $132.5 million. The House Budget Committee, in its report (H. Rept. 104-120) on the FY1996 Budget Resolution (H.Con.Res. 67), started with the President's budget request for FY1996 and recommended future cuts leading to a level of $63 million in FY2000--an overall decrease of 63 percent from FY1994. |
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| However, in the Department of the Interior Appropriations bill, H.R. 1977, the House Appropriations Committee opted to abolish the Bureau, providing $87 million for its "orderly closure." According to House Report 104-173, the Committee based its decision on what it perceived to be flagging endorsement by the Administration of the Bureau's programs. The House passed the bill July 18. |
| Subsequently, the Senate Appropriations Committee rejected closure of the Bureau and approved the President's request of $132.5 million (S. Rept. 105-125). The full Senate approved funding for the Bureau in its version of H.R. 1977, which passed on August 9, 1995, although an amendment reduced the Bureau's appropriation to $128 million (transferring $4.5 million to fund certain Endangered Species Act programs). |
| House and Senate conferees on H.R. 1977 agreed to abolish the Bureau of Mines, providing $64 million for its closure and relocating some functions to other agencies (H. Rept. No. 104-300, October 31, 1995). Relocated elements of the Bureau include no-cost transfers of selected facilities and laboratories to universities or governmental entities, shifting research into selected mine safety problems to the Department of Energy (DOE), and transferring data collection activities to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). |
| After several changes unrelated to closing the Bureau of Mines, the House (December 13) and Senate (December 14) approved a conference version of H.R. 1977. As it had pledged, the White House vetoed H.R. 1977, citing several reasons unrelated to the bill's treatment of the Bureau. Congress attempted an override on January 4, 1996, but it failed in the House by a vote of 239 to 177 (see CRS Report 95-629 ENR, Appropriations for FY1996: Interior). |
| But the Department of the Interior and the White House concurred with Congress on shutting down the Bureau of Mines. Of the Bureau's approximately 1,700 employees, DOI has notified 500 that they will be relocated to DOE or USGS; the rest are scheduled to be laid off early in 1996. Technically, however, the Department of the Interior lacked authority to implement the closure because this authorization was tied to the vetoed Interior Appropriation bill, H.R. 1977. However, Congress included authority and appropriations to dismantle the Bureau in H.R.2280 (P.L.104-99), legislation which funds various government agencies, including DOI, until mid-March, 1996. The legislation provides $64 million for shutdown, the amount that was agreed to by the conferees on H.R. 1977. Thus, regardless of the outcome of sparring between the White House and the Congress over funding DOI for the full FY1996, the Bureau of Mines has indeed become a casualty of federal downsizing. The actual date of formal closure of the Bureau has yet to be announced, but would presumably occur within 90 days--the original period provided in H.R. 1977. |
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A number of the more prominent functions of the Bureau have been moved to other agencies within the Department of the Interior or to other departments. The one considered most familiar--mineral data collection and dissemination--has been moved to U.S. Geological Survey. According to the Interior Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, $15 million has been allocated to the Survey to assume the Bureau's data function. The mine health and safety function has been moved to the Department of Energy's facility in Pittsburgh. The Subcommittee indicated that $40 million was to be provided to assist DOE in absorbing these new responsibilities. Alaska mineral lands assessment is being moved to the Bureau of Land Management, and materials research activities, formerly located in Albany, Oregon, are being transferred to the Department of Energy. No specific funding for the movement of these activities was suggested.
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There is a separate legislative proposal to discontinue Government refinement and sale of crude helium and to reduce Federal stockpiles from 32 billion to 600 million cubic feet (H.R. 2491, Balanced Budget Act of l995, subchapter B--Helium Reserves, SEC. 5311 et seq). For a more extensive report on the helium program, see The Federal Helium Program: The Reaction Over An Inert Gas, by James E. Mielke, CRS report No. 95-197SPR, January 25, 1995.
Legislative authority for managing the stockpile rested first with the General Services Administration (GSA), later with the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency, and currently with the Department of Defense
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| CRS Report for Congress |
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