A bill to reauthorize the Great Ape Conservation Act of 2000.

Mr. President, today I introduce the Great Ape Conservation Reauthorization Act of 2005. Over the past decade I have sponsored legislation to establish and reauthorize programs designated for the conservation of several multinational species including African elephants, Asian elephants, rhinoceros and tigers, and marine turtles.

Throughout my years in Congress, endangered species conservation has been among my highest priorities, but the recent birth of my first grandson lends new strength to my commitment to preserve the natural world for future generations.

The great apes--chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, and gibbons--constitute a group of 14 primate species that share a high percentage of genetic characteristics with human beings. Among them, certain species have demonstrated the ability to learn human behaviors. Left unharmed, they may live for 30 to 50 years and form complex social relationships. As Dr. Jane Goodall said in a BBC News article in 2002, ``All [great ape species] have minds that can solve simple problems and all have feelings. So it's a moral responsibility to save them from extinction.''

The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that fewer than 100,000 Western lowland gorillas currently remain worldwide. Only 30,000 orangutans remain in Southeast Asia. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, whereas more than one million chimpanzees populated the dense forests of Africa in 1960, fewer than 200,000 survive in the wild today.

In regions of Western and Central Africa and Southeast Asia, where populations of these captivating creatures still remain, the continued existence of great ape species will depend upon finding solutions to various complicated threats including habitat destruction, disease, and poaching.

One problem of elevated concern for scientists is the alarming number of new outbreaks of the ebola virus in Africa. As we have become increasingly aware of the substantial risk to human life that ebola and similar viruses pose

in parts of Central and Western Africa, few understand the serious impact that these diseases have on great ape populations. A study published in the journal Nature in 2003 reports that when an ebola outbreak affects a given area, more than 80 percent of all great apes living in that area will die of the disease.

In August 2004, the International Primatological Society released preliminary evidence that suggests that as many as 20,000 Western lowland gorillas may be at risk as the result of a new outbreak of the ebola virus in the Republic of Congo.

Developing vaccines and techniques to prevent the decimation of great ape populations as a result of ebola will require a coordinated effort among conservationists, wildlife biologists, and those responding to human outbreaks. Supported in part by the Great Ape Conservation Fund, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently convened a meeting of experts to begin the process of developing a research and intervention plan. This meeting typifies this kind of collaborative conservation effort that the Great Ape Conservation program was designed to undertake.

The Great Ape Conservation Fund has also played an invaluable role in protecting habitat. One of the first such projects to receive support from the Fund, the Goualougo Triangle Chimp Project in the Republic of Congo, is a success story that stands out among what can often be disheartening news from the frontlines of chimpanzee conservation.

In 1993, scientists first discovered a small population of chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle that had never been hunted and were therefore not afraid of humans. The presence of such chimps is extraordinary given that their habitat coincides with a region that is rife with logging and bushmeat hunting.

With help from the Great Ape program, scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society produced scientific evidence to document 272 individual chimps and acquired rare video footage of their social interactions. As a result of this study, conservationists convinced the government of Congo to protect the Goualougo chimps and their habitat from the eminent threat of logging and hunting and to cede the Goualougo Triangle to a national park.

Over the course of merely 5 years, the Great Ape Conservation Fund has provided financial assistance for 94 research and restoration projects in 22 countries and leveraged millions of dollars in additional matching and in-kind funds.

My legislation reauthorizes the Great Ape Conservation Fund, which receives its annual appropriation through the Multinational Species Conservation Fund, for 5 years and gradually raises the funding authorization from $5 million for each year to $7 million for fiscal year 2008 and $10 million for fiscal years 2009 and 2010. The bill raises the top threshold cap on administrative expenses from $80,000 to $150,000, though I should note that over the past five years, Federal appropriations have yet to bring the cap on administrative expenses to the top threshold amount.

Additional provisions of the bill will expand the variety of conservation projects eligible for assistance to include those that address the root causes of threats to great apes in range states, including the illegal bushmeat trade, diseases, lack of regional or local capacity for conservation and habitat loss due to natural disasters.

The bill also amends an existing requirement in the law that requires that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service annually convene a panel of experts. My bill exempts expert panels under this law from the Federal Advisory Committee Act and provide the administrator with greater flexibility to determine when it is appropriate to convene an expert panel.

I remain hopeful that despite the overwhelming challenges that jeopardize the continued survival of great apes, we can do our part to sustain efforts to halt their unnecessary extinction.

Federal assistance for the conservation of rare, threatened and endangered international species through the use of species conservation funds has received bipartisan support from Congress for nearly 15 years. I ask you to please join me in maintaining this longstanding commitment to wildlife protection.

Mr. President, I ask that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, today I introduce the Great Ape Conservation Reauthorization Act of 2005. Over the past decade I have sponsored legislation to establish and reauthorize programs designated for the conservation of several multinational species including African elephants, Asian elephants, rhinoceros and tigers, and marine turtles.

Throughout my years in Congress, endangered species conservation has been among my highest priorities, but the recent birth of my first grandson lends new strength to my commitment to preserve the natural world for future generations.

The great apes--chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, and gibbons--constitute a group of 14 primate species that share a high percentage of genetic characteristics with human beings. Among them, certain species have demonstrated the ability to learn human behaviors. Left unharmed, they may live for 30 to 50 years and form complex social relationships. As Dr. Jane Goodall said in a BBC News article in 2002, ``All [great ape species] have minds that can solve simple problems and all have feelings. So it's a moral responsibility to save them from extinction.''

The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that fewer than 100,000 Western lowland gorillas currently remain worldwide. Only 30,000 orangutans remain in Southeast Asia. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, whereas more than one million chimpanzees populated the dense forests of Africa in 1960, fewer than 200,000 survive in the wild today.

In regions of Western and Central Africa and Southeast Asia, where populations of these captivating creatures still remain, the continued existence of great ape species will depend upon finding solutions to various complicated threats including habitat destruction, disease, and poaching.

One problem of elevated concern for scientists is the alarming number of new outbreaks of the ebola virus in Africa. As we have become increasingly aware of the substantial risk to human life that ebola and similar viruses pose

in parts of Central and Western Africa, few understand the serious impact that these diseases have on great ape populations. A study published in the journal Nature in 2003 reports that when an ebola outbreak affects a given area, more than 80 percent of all great apes living in that area will die of the disease.

In August 2004, the International Primatological Society released preliminary evidence that suggests that as many as 20,000 Western lowland gorillas may be at risk as the result of a new outbreak of the ebola virus in the Republic of Congo.

Developing vaccines and techniques to prevent the decimation of great ape populations as a result of ebola will require a coordinated effort among conservationists, wildlife biologists, and those responding to human outbreaks. Supported in part by the Great Ape Conservation Fund, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently convened a meeting of experts to begin the process of developing a research and intervention plan. This meeting typifies this kind of collaborative conservation effort that the Great Ape Conservation program was designed to undertake.

The Great Ape Conservation Fund has also played an invaluable role in protecting habitat. One of the first such projects to receive support from the Fund, the Goualougo Triangle Chimp Project in the Republic of Congo, is a success story that stands out among what can often be disheartening news from the frontlines of chimpanzee conservation.

In 1993, scientists first discovered a small population of chimpanzees in the Goualougo Triangle that had never been hunted and were therefore not afraid of humans. The presence of such chimps is extraordinary given that their habitat coincides with a region that is rife with logging and bushmeat hunting.

With help from the Great Ape program, scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society produced scientific evidence to document 272 individual chimps and acquired rare video footage of their social interactions. As a result of this study, conservationists convinced the government of Congo to protect the Goualougo chimps and their habitat from the eminent threat of logging and hunting and to cede the Goualougo Triangle to a national park.

Over the course of merely 5 years, the Great Ape Conservation Fund has provided financial assistance for 94 research and restoration projects in 22 countries and leveraged millions of dollars in additional matching and in-kind funds.

My legislation reauthorizes the Great Ape Conservation Fund, which receives its annual appropriation through the Multinational Species Conservation Fund, for 5 years and gradually raises the funding authorization from $5 million for each year to $7 million for fiscal year 2008 and $10 million for fiscal years 2009 and 2010. The bill raises the top threshold cap on administrative expenses from $80,000 to $150,000, though I should note that over the past five years, Federal appropriations have yet to bring the cap on administrative expenses to the top threshold amount.

Additional provisions of the bill will expand the variety of conservation projects eligible for assistance to include those that address the root causes of threats to great apes in range states, including the illegal bushmeat trade, diseases, lack of regional or local capacity for conservation and habitat loss due to natural disasters.

The bill also amends an existing requirement in the law that requires that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service annually convene a panel of experts. My bill exempts expert panels under this law from the Federal Advisory Committee Act and provide the administrator with greater flexibility to determine when it is appropriate to convene an expert panel.

I remain hopeful that despite the overwhelming challenges that jeopardize the continued survival of great apes, we can do our part to sustain efforts to halt their unnecessary extinction.

Federal assistance for the conservation of rare, threatened and endangered international species through the use of species conservation funds has received bipartisan support from Congress for nearly 15 years. I ask you to please join me in maintaining this longstanding commitment to wildlife protection.

Mr. President, I ask that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry be authorized to conduct a hearing during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 10 a.m. in SR-328A, Russell Senate office building. The purpose of this hearing will be to review bio-security preparedness and efforts to address agroterrorism threats.

Mr. President, I would like to ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be authorized to meet to hold a Business Meeting on July 20, 2005 at 9:30 a.m. on the following agenda:

Resolutions: To authorize GSA's fiscal year 06 Capital Investment and Leasing Program; to authorize a lease prospectus for the General Services Administration headquarters; committee resolution on the Delaware River and its Tributaries, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania; committee resolution on the Beneficial Use of Dredged Material on the Delaware River, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; committee resolution on the South Fork of the South Branch of the Chicago River, IL; and committee resolution on the Grand and Tiger Passes and Baptiste Collette Bayou, LA.

Nominations: Marcus A. Peacock, of Minnesota, to be Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; and Granta Y. Nakayama, of Virginia, to be Assistant Administrator, Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance, Environmental Protection Agency.

Legislation: H.R. 1428 National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Reauthorization Act of 2005; S. 1250 Great Apes Bill; S. 1409 Alaska Native Villages reauthorization; S. 1265 Diesel Emissions Reduction Act of 2005; S. 1339 Duck Stamp bill; S. 1340 Pittman-Robertson extension; S. 158 Long Island Sound; S. 1410 Neotropical Birds reauthorization; S. 1415 Lacey Act technical correction; and S. 1400 Water Infrastructure Bill.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session on Wednesday, July 20, 2005, at 10 a.m., in 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building, to consider the nominations of Robert M. Kimmitt, to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, U.S. Department of the Treasury; Randal Quarles, to be Under Secretary of the Treasury, Domestic Finance, U.S. Department of the Treasury; Sandra L. Pack, to be Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Management, U.S. Department of the Treasury; Kevin I. Fromer, to be Deputy Under Secretary of the Treasury, Legislative Affairs, U.S. Department of the Treasury.

THE PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

committee on foreign relations

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, July 20, 2005, at 10:15 a.m. to hold a hearing on Accelerating Economic Progress in Iraq.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be authorized to meet in executive session during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 9:30 a.m. in SD-430.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be authorized to meet to conduct a hearing on Reporters' Privilege Legislation: Issues and Implications'' on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 9:30 a.m. in Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 226.

Panel I: The Honorable James Comey, Deputy Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC.

Panel II: Matthew Cooper, White House Correspondent, Time Magazine Inc., Washington, DC.

Norman Pearlstine, Editor-in-Chief, Time Inc., New York City, NY.

William Safire, Political Columnist, New York Times Company, New York City, NY.

Floyd Abrams, Partner, Cahill Gordon and Reindel LLP, New York City,

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Commmittee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 20, 2005 at 2:30 p.m. to hold a briefing.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Special Commmittee on Aging be authorized to meet Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 2:30 p.m.-5 p.m. in Dirksen 106 for the purpose of conducting a hearing.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Global Climate Change and Impacts be authorized to meet on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 10 a.m. on A Review of United States Climate Policy and the $5 Billion Budget Request for Climate Related Science and Technology in fiscal year 2006.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 at 2 p.m.

The purpose of the hearing is to receive testimony on S. 703, to provide for the conveyance of certain Bureau of Land Management land in the State of Nevada to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and for other purposes; S. 997, to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to convey certain land in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge Forest, MT, to Jefferson County, MT, for use as a cemetery; S. 1131, to authorize the exchange of certain Federal land within the State of Idaho, and for other purposes; S. 1170, to establish the Fort Stanton-Snowy River National Cave Conservation area; S. 1238, to amend the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993 to provide for the conduct of projects that protect forests, and other purposes; and H.R. 1101, to revoke a public land order with respect to certain lands erroneously included in the Cibola National Wildlife Refuge, CA.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4957) to direct the Secretary of the Interior to convey the Tylersville division of the Lamar National Fish Hatchery and Fish Technology Center to the State of Pennsylvania, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 4957 contains several important conservation titles. It would first convey the Tylersville National Fish Hatchery to the State of Pennsylvania, a provision authored by Congressman John Peterson and Senator Rick Santorum.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has been operating this facility under a long-term lease agreement with the Fish and Wildlife Service. By all accounts they have operated this hatchery in a highly effective manner, producing adult trout for thousands of recreational fishermen and investing nearly $4 million in improvements. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has testified that this facility is not considered an active component of the Federal Fish Hatchery System.

Title II of this bill is based on the text of H.R. 1428, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Reauthorization Act, as passed by the House. It will simply extend the existing authorization levels for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The foundation has funded more than 6,500 conservation projects and involved more than 1,800 conservation organizations.

The goal of those projects has been to increase resources for fish and wildlife conservation and develop innovative conservation solutions while respecting private property rights and sustaining healthy ecosystems.

Title III of the legislation will extend the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act of 2000, legislation which has already been passed by the House. This will allow the Secretary of the Interior to continue to approve grants for the conservation of the more than 800 species of neotropical birds that migrate and reside throughout North America.

Title IV incorporates the text of the Ed Fountain Park Expansion Act, approved by the other body on July 11. Under this provision, about 8 acres of Federal land would be conveyed from the Fish and Wildlife Service to the city of Las Vegas, Nevada. There, land was once used as the headquarters for the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, but the only remaining structure on the property is an abandoned storage building.

The city of Las Vegas would pay administrative transfer costs and the property would revert back to the Federal Government if not used for a park.

Title V incorporates the House-passed language of H.R. 4947, the Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge Expansion Act. The Cahaba River is the longest free-flowing river in the State of Alabama, and it may have the greatest fish biodiversity per mile of any river in the United States. This measure will modestly expand the boundaries of the existing refuge.

Title VI incorporates the House-passed text of H.R. 5232, the Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge Study Act. This legislation requires the Fish and Wildlife Service to evaluate the potential of creating a new national wildlife refuge in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Finally, there is an extension of existing authorization of appropriation levels for the Great Ape Conservation Act taken from S. 1250 which passed the Senate earlier this month.

For the past 6 years, about $1 million per year has been spent to stop great ape species from sliding toward extinction. The Fish and Wildlife Service has assisted endangered chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans through 155 projects in dozens of range States and leveraged an additional $7.7 million in private matching funds.

Mr. Speaker, I urge an ``aye'' vote on this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. President, I join with Senator Kennedy and others today in introducing an urgent and critical piece of legislation, the Student Fairness Act.

This bill would provide rebates to the many college students who will be receiving a dramatic reduction in their Federal financial aid come the return of classes this September. Due to an obscure change made in December of 2004 to a complicated and little-known formula used by the Department of Education to determine Pell Grant eligibility and allotment, many students will see a surprising increase in their expected family contribution, EFC, and a decrease in their Pell Grants. We must act now to prevent these decreases in aid from pricing our students out of college, forcing them to postpone their education and put their career goals on hold.

These changes to the tax tables, at the behest of the Administration, have the effect of cutting $300 million from the successful Pell grant program, upon which more than 5 million students nationwide rely. It is projected that, as a result of these cuts, 1.3 million students will see a reduction in their Pell grants and a projected 90,000 more will become ineligible entirely for Pell grant assistance. According to a survey performed by the New York Times, some students could lose up to $6,000 in financial aid and the average family will have to pay an extra $1,700 before clearing the eligibility bar.

Although the situation is imminent, this is not the first time the Senate has acted to block such changes to the Pell Grant award formula. I successfully secured language in the FY04 Onmibus Appropriations bill that blocked the administration from carrying out a similar plan for the 2004-2005 school year. The same provision, however, was dropped during the conference deliberations of the FY05 Omnibus Appropriations bill. In response, I, along with 31 of my Senate colleagues, introduced S. 187, the Ensuring College Access for All Americans Act, which would have prevented the new calculations from reducing Pell Grants for the 2005-2006 academic year. Alas, the Senate has not acted with enough haste, and by now many financial aid departments have already determined their student aid packages based on the new figures. Students are beginning to realize the harsh reality of rising college tuitions matched by a government unwilling to support its own future leaders. Our only remaining option is to provide these students with these rebates so that they will not lose their financial aid for the coming school year.

This bill calls on the Secretary of Education to calculate the increase in a student's expected family contribution due to the tax table modifications and then provides each such student with a rebate equal to that increase. The legislation would hold harmless any student whose expected family contribution decreased or stayed the same as a result of the changes. Furthermore, the rebate would be treated in the same manner as other financial assistance for tax purposes and would not affect future Pell Grant eligibility.

In addition, our bill has recently received the endorsement of the Campaign for America's Future, an organization that has been a great advocate for students and has been actively collecting stories from American students about the incredible impact of financial aid on their lives.

I thank the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators for their help in crafting this bill and their support in helping students receive the financial aid they deserve.

I urge my colleagues to pass the Student Fairness Act immediately to prevent any student from putting off college because their financial aid has suddenly and mysteriously disappeared.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.