Copyright 2001 Associated Press
June 21, 2001
By SANDRA SOBIERAJ, Associated Press Writer

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - Frolicking with kids in Alabama's lush hills, President Bush promoted his conservation budget Thursday and warned Congress not to act on its own big spending ideas.

Bush visited Oak Mountain State Park while appropriations committees on Capitol Hill continued work on spending bills. His playfulness at a lakeside YMCA camp, where he held a turtle he called George and sidled up to the arts-and-crafts table, contrasted his stern message to lawmakers.

``If they try to bust the budget, there's a remedy ... and that's to put the veto pen on it and send it back to the Congress until we get the budget right,'' Bush said.

His brow glistening in the heat, Bush argued for his proposal to give the 36-year-old Land and Water Conservation Fund an unprecedented $900 million next year. The fund helps states buy and maintain open spaces.

``For a long time, the federal government has been falling short on its commitment to this fund,'' Bush said.

As a result, he said, many states have been denied promised conservation aid. ``Under the budget I have submitted to the United States Congress, that practice will stop.''

Keeping Bush's campaign promise to fully fund the LWCF has meant eliminating money for related conservation efforts. A wildlife program and grants for urban parks are among those on the chopping block.

``It's just one more budget sleight of hand,'' said Debbie Sease, legislative director for The Sierra Club (news - web sites). ``His budget ends up yielding less money overall for the environment.''

As for Bush's Alabama visit, which follows similarly Earth-friendly speeches at Sequoia National Park and the Everglades, Sease sniffed: ``Pretty picture, nice backdrop and not much real good news for the environment.''

Sease is not alone in her skepticism.

The latest CBS-New York Times survey, published Thursday, underscored Bush's challenge in building a ``green'' profile: just 39 percent of the poll's 1,050 respondents approved of how Bush is handling the environment. Forty-six percent disapproved.

On Thursday, he nominated Mark Rey, a former top lobbyist for the timber industry, to an Agriculture Department post overseeing the Forest Service and land conservation programs.

The White House insisted that, under Bush's proposed budget, overall conservation spending would increase from $1.46 billion this year to $1.5 billion next year. Spokesman Ari Fleischer said wrapping urban-parks, wildlife and other funds into the larger LWCF block grant leaves states the option of spending that money on parks and wildlife.

The first spending bills approved by the House and its committees have exceeded Bush's requests.

The House debated adding $600 million to Bush's request for the Interior Department even as Bush delivered his speech beside Oak Mountain's tranquil lake.

And, reacting to public sensitivities over the West's power crisis, House lawmakers have taken steps to plump up Bush's energy proposals by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Even so, House Republicans say that they plan to keep the total price tag for all 13 spending bills within the $661 billion that Bush proposed.

Bush, who had to change out of his sport shirt and boots for a fancy political fund raiser, sounded envious of the park-goers at play.

``They come here to hike, they come here to spend time with their families, they come here to fish,'' Bush said. ``I wish I was coming here to fish a little more often.''

In downtown Birmingham, Bush headlined a $1,000-per-plate chicken dinner raising $1.6 million for the 2002 re-election campaign of Sen. Jeff Sessions (news - bio - voting record), R-Ala., who called it ``the single most successful fund-raising event in Alabama's history.''

From there, the president continued on to his Crawford, Texas, ranch for a long weekend with his wife, Laura, who has been there since Monday. Error: Unable to read footer file.