Congress is considering legislation that would reauthorize the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972. This overview summarizes the programs created by this act and its amendments, and outlines issues associated with reauthorization. These issues include reauthorizing funding, altering grant programs, changing the National Estuarine Research Reserve system, funding to implement nonpoint water pollution requirements, protecting private property rights, expanding program evaluation efforts, and examining effects of personal water craft on the coastal requirement. A reauthorization bill has been reported by the House Resources Committee (H.R. 2669, H. Rept. 106-485), and floor action is anticipated soon. In the Senate, no action has been taken.

This report provides a table detailing the requested Forest Service (FS) budget for FY2001 and comparing it FY1999 appropriations.

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On January 12, 2000, the Supreme Court held in Friends of the Earth v. Laidlaw that plaintiffs had standing to pursue a Clean Water Act citizen suit, despite the fact that (1) the company-defendant had achieved compliance prior to the district court's decision, (2) plaintiffs sought only civil penalties payable to the U.S. Treasury, and (3) plaintiffs had demonstrated only reasonable concern, not physical injury to the environment. In so holding, the Court appeared to retrench substantially from its environmental standing decisions of the 1990s, which had all gone against plaintiffs. In the wake of Laidlaw, environmental citizen suits will be easier to bring. This report will not be updated.