32 



Now when I look at one of the aspects of this, and I brought this 

 up when Mr. Jones was testifying, and that is that we estimated 

 as a committee that this could cost as much as $5 million a year 

 to do an adequate job in carrjdng out the provisions of the Act. Mr. 

 Jones testified, I think I heard correctly, and some of you folks are 

 still here, you can correct me if I am wrong, that we spend about 

 $100,000 a year canying out the provisions of the Act. Now it is 

 impossible, it seems to me, to do any kind of an adequate job of 

 either promulgating regulations in an adequate fashion or in carry- 

 ing out the permitting process with $100,000, which pays a person 

 or two to do the job for the entire country. Do you see that as a 

 primary problem that we have here? I am not a — I am a fairly con- 

 servative guy when it comes to spending money, but if we are going 

 to have a law that says that certain things are provided in the law 

 that have to be done, somebody has to request the money to do it. 

 Is that a fair assessment? Do I gather that correctly? Anybody 

 want to comment? 



Mr, Meyers. Mr. Chairman, I think it is absolutely a fair ques- 

 tion, but it goes to a broader problem. I think you probably better 

 look at the whole permitting system, not out of criticism, but out — 

 in terms of providing some assistance. I believe that maybe there 

 was $100,000 dedicated specifically to the WBCA, but I believe it 

 is fair to characterize Mr, Jones' testimony that they had approxi- 

 mately $500,000 to run the whole program, I think this is just 



Mr. Saxton, I think he said they had — they requested and re- 

 ceived $500,000 in fiscal year '94, 



Mr. Meyers. Oh. 



Mr. Saxton. They requested zero in fiscal year '95 and zero in 

 fiscal year '96, and transferred some money from some other ac- 

 counts. And if it is more than $100,000 that took place in transfer, 

 please somebody in the first — that is what it is? 



Mr. Meyers. It seems to me from what I heard from the testi- 

 mony that they just wrapped it in, but I am not going to answer 

 for him. 



Mr. Saxton. You know, we — just to further make this point, the 

 African Elephant Conservation Act we appropriated last year $1.2 

 million, which I assume the Administration requested part of The 

 Rhino and Tiger Conservation Act we appropriated $400,000 and 

 the Wild Bird Conservation Act that we are talking about today is 

 a goose egg, and that didn't work, it seems to me. Doctor? 



Dr. Clubb. If I may make one comment in that regard. In Janu- 

 ary of this year I became very frustrated because of an excessive 

 delay in issuance by the Service of an Appendix I captive-bred ex- 

 port permit, CITES permit, and I submitted a FOIA (Freedom of 

 Information Act) request to the Service for similar exports of Ap- 

 pendix I captive-bred psittacines in the previous year, in 1994. 

 Seven months later I got the reply on the FOIA request. It was a 

 one-page reply and the cover letter stated that due to difficulties 

 in dealing with their computer system it took them that long to 

 supply this information, I think that our government should have 

 top quality computer equipment. If they simply have the tools to 

 work with, then perhaps they can work efficiently. If it takes them 

 seven months to generate a one-letter reply to a FOIA request, 

 then obviously their technology is not adequate in today's time. 



