mr. chairman , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
appropriations without authorizations or that exceed authorized levels violate house rule xxi , clause 2. this amendment enforces this rule by not allowing moneys to be spent for 10 specified programs within the committee on resources ' sole jurisdiction which are not authorized to be funded in fiscal year 2006 until the committee on resources authorizes them . 
the money remains in the bill but can not be obligated by the agencies until the authorizing committee authorizes them to do so . 
because the interior appropriations bill often combines both authorized and unauthorized programs in a single number , such as funding for survey activities of the u.s. geological survey , the amendment assures that these programs which are authorized by fiscal year 2006 , their funding can not continue . 
for those programs which are authorized but the amount appropriated exceeds the authorized level , such as in the case for the council on environmental quality , then the amendment restricts the funding to the authorized level . 
the purpose of this amendment is to give us the ability to go back and authorize a number of these programs that have not been authorized for years and in some cases in excess of a dozen years . 
one of the major problems that we have is the committee on appropriations gets in the position of having to continue to appropriate money on these unauthorized programs because they are important programs . 
but in this case what we are talking about is $ 5.3 billion that is being appropriated . 
so this is a fiscal issue . 
i believe that the taxpayer demands that we do our job in authorizing these programs and make sure that the public is getting their money 's worth out of these different programs . 
currently , i do not believe that is the case . 
and it gives us the ability to go back and authorize those programs . 
i believe this is something that is extremely important . 
the gentleman from north carolina ( mr. taylor ) xz4003981 and the gentleman from washington ( mr. dicks ) xz4001090 have worked with us on a number of different things that are in this bill over the past year . 
but when it comes to some of these major programs that we have not been able to get an authorization on , i believe the time is now for us to move forward and begin to fence off those moneys until we can get an authorization done . 
mr. chairman , i reserve the balance of my time . 
