The Senate killed a proposal yesterday that would have taken $33.6 million from the Forest Service timber-sale and road-building budget and put it toward protecting and surveying rare plants and animals in the Northwest and reducing the national debt. Republicans argued that the proposal, which Sens. Richard Bryan (D-Nev.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) tried to tack onto the Interior Department spending bill, would have hurt the logging industry. Meanwhile, the Senate is expected to approve an amendment by Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) that would renew the permits of ranchers to graze on public land even if federal land managers had not completed environmental reviews of the ranchers’ operations.
