House Republicans are forcing votes on amendments to restrict the Interior Department's use of Superstorm Sandy relief funds, part of a broader GOP effort to ensure disaster money is limited to areas directly affected by the October storm.

One amendment by Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation, would bar Interior or the Forest Service from using any money to acquire new federal lands.

Another amendment by Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), chairman of the committee's Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs Subcommittee, would trim $10 million from the Fish and Wildlife Service for building seawalls and buildings on uninhabited islands in the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge in Connecticut.

The House Rules Committee last night approved a rule allowing votes on both amendments but rejected separate amendments by Fleming that would block FWS from using any funds to relocate undamaged roads or install new water control equipment in wildlife refuges that were not damaged by the hurricane.

The measures were offered as second-degree amendments to a larger amendment by appropriator Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) that would boost Sandy aid by $33.7 billion above the base House bill.

The Frelinghuysen amendment would provide more than half-a-billion dollars in additional funding for Interior agencies, bringing it in line with funding in the Sandy relief package passed by the Senate at the end of the last Congress.

Passage of Frelinghuysen's amendment depends in large part on the support of Democrats, moderate Republicans and Northeast lawmakers whose constituents were affected by the superstorm (see related story). The House will begin debate on the relief package today.

The amendment would boost National Park Service construction funding from $234 million to $348 million and provide an additional $50 million for historical preservation. It would raise relief funding for FWS from $50 million to $78 million.

It also would provide an additional $360 million to the Interior secretary to "restore and rebuild national parks, national wildlife refuges, and other federal public assets; [and] increase the resiliency and capacity of coastal habitat and infrastructure to withstand storms."

Bishop's amendment would ensure that the agency could not use any of that money to enlarge the federal estate at a time when it faces a multibillion-dollar maintenance backlog, said Bishop spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin.

In total, Fleming's amendments would have barred FWS from using roughly $18 million to repair seawalls and buildings on uninhabited islands or to move roads or install new water systems in North Carolina that were not damaged by Superstorm Sandy and for which the agency has not previously requested funding, he said.

"I recognize the value of preventive medicine, but I don't send my patients to the emergency room to receive that," he said.

The Frelinghuysen amendment is strongly supported by parks and refuge advocates, who warned yesterday that without additional funding, agencies would have to siphon funds away from programs across the country to recover from the storm.

"It's absolutely vital the [national wildlife] refuge system gets this funding," said Desiree Sorenson-Groves, vice president for government affairs at the National Wildlife Refuge Association, who added that she does not support the amendments by Bishop and Fleming.

The National Parks Conservation Association said failure to pass the Frelinghuysen amendment could delay efforts to reopen New York's Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and coastal areas at Fire Island National Seashore and Gateway National Recreation Area, which could harm local tourism economies.

John Garder, budget and appropriations legislative representative for NPCA, said the base relief legislation from House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) is insufficient to ensure that parks are rebuilt to withstand future storms.

"I don't know that anyone could argue this bill is perfect, but it is a very important effort to find middle ground," he said. "This is funding that is long overdue."

According to an NPCA fact sheet, more than 925 personnel from 160 parks nationwide were redirected to cleanup and stabilization efforts at more than 70 storm-damaged park units. The group cited severe damage to mechanical systems at the Statue of Liberty and severe erosion and overwashes at Fire Island.

Separately, Colorado lawmakers of both parties proposed an amendment to Rogers' base bill that would provide $125 million for the Agriculture Department's emergency watershed protection program, which they argued is crucial for Colorado communities affected by last summer's wildfires (E&E Daily, Jan. 4).