On the afternoon of July 12th 2001, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved its version of the fiscal year 2002 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill. (The Subcommittee markup occurred earlier in the day.) The bill could be considered on the Senate floor as soon as Monday July 16th. The following information is based on draft materials and subject to change.

Overall, the Senate bill is reported to have provided $25.5 billion in new discretionary budget authority, $1.4 billion above the FY 2001 enacted level and $2.4 billion above the FY 2002 President's Budget. Within the total, $884.2 million in new current budget authority was provided for Department of the Interior programs, $67.6 million over the FY 2001 level, $41.3 million over the House bill, and $64.5 million over the FY 2002 President's Budget.

Like the House bill, the Senate bill does not provide funds for the California Bay-Delta Restoration account. The Senate bill does, however, provides $40.0 million in additional funds for authorized activities of the Bureau of Reclamation's Central Valley Project that will also support the goals of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program.

Chairman Byrd noted that, in addition to the Interior and Energy and Water Development bills, the Committee planned to mark up seven other appropriations bills by the end of July. The tentative schedule is: July 12th Ð Transportation and Legislative; July 17th Ð Agriculture; July 19th Ð VA-HUD and Commerce-Justice-State; July 26th Ð Foreign Ops and Treasury-Postal.