Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan today announced that the Department's Fiscal Year 1993 $8.6 billion budget continues the President's commitment to enhancing our Nation's human, natural, historical and cultural resources while generating employment and economic opportunities.
"This Administration has made great progress in improving our Federal lands and protecting our resources while enhancing economic development nationwide," Lujan said. "By increasing spending for the newly combined America the Beautiful and Legacy '99 initiatives to $1. 5 billion as well as strengthening the Tribal Horizons program, the President's FY 1993 budget ensures that this progress will continue. The construction and maintenance aspects of the Legacy '99 initiative generate over 10,000 private sector jobs a year."
Tribal Horizons, initiated by Lujan in FY 1992, is slated for a $15.3 million increase. The total budget for the Tribal Horizon program, which emphasizes improved education, self-determination and economic development opportunities for American Indians, is $865 million.
Interior's budget request supports the President's Education 2000 goals by giving education-related activities strong emphasis. Activities under the President's Math, Science and Engineering Education initiative total $88.4 million for 1993, an increase of $5.2 million. This includes an increase of $3 million for the Parks as Classrooms program to teach America's school children about the Nation's natural resources. For Indian students in Bureau of Indian Affairs-funded schools, the budget proposes an increase of $12 million.
In a new initiative, Lujan is proposing $4 million for the first year of a three-year program to preserve historic buildings at 11 Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The United Negro College Fund will match the Federal program.
In addition, the President's budget requests $42.8 million for the War on Drugs, which will focus on drug trafficking in the southwest border area. Funding of$ 6.5 million has been requested to support volunteer programs at National Parks and wildlife refuges, and in other Interior agencies. Last year, 109,000 volunteers donated 4.8 million hours of work with an estimated value of $52 million to Interior agencies.
The budget also assumes passage of legislation in 1992 to permit development of oil and gas resources in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). "Environmentally responsible development in ANWR would have enormous economic benefits, creating more than 200,000 jobs nationwide and providing an estimated $125 billion in revenues to Federal and state governments while reducing our dependence on imported oil," Lujan said.
