The vote is on an amendment to cut funding for the Interior Department by 3% of $240 million. Over the previous three years the Reagan Administration had already made huge cuts in important Interior Department programs, especially those designated to protect, rather than commercialize, our natural resources. Most of the programs in the bill were supported by environmentalists. These included the operating budgets for the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Office of Surface Mining; the urban parks program; historic preservation grants; and the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is used to buy new parkland, wildlife refuges and National Forest land. President Reagan wanted to eliminate some of these programs entirely.

McDade amendment to cut Interior Department funding accepted 212-181; August 2, 1984. NO is the pro-environmental vote. (McDade amendment to the fiscal 1985 Interior Department Appropriations bill, H.R. 5973.) The Reagan Administration supported the McDade amendment, which cut $240 million. $90 million of this was restored by the House-Senate Conference Committee, so the final cut was $150 million.