In your article, “Court Ruling on Salmon Hooks Pork” (Jan. 30) Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) is telling a big fish story. The senator’s suggestion that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has handcuffed the appropriations committees is even more misleading than his arguments to disband the Fish Passage Center.

This case will not disrupt the appropriations process. The key distinction is that the committee report language attempting to defund the Fish Passage Center was in direct conflict with a federal statute — the Northwest Power and Conservation Act. This is different from the usual “earmark” or “report language.” Agencies continue to have the discretion to implement report language so long as it does not conflict with another legal duty enacted by Congress.

The real importance of the case is that it protects scientific analysis of the salmon runs that are so vital to the northwest economy and ecology. Senator Craig has accused the Fish Passage Center of bias, repeating arguments verbatim from the hydropower industry. None of the state, tribal or federal fishery managers — including the Idaho Department of Fish and Game — who have relied on the Center for the past 20 years agreed with that assessment, nor did the Independent Scientific Advisory Board, created by legislation. Senator Craig’s report language would have eliminated an important source of information to the public, to northwest fisheries agencies and treaty Indian tribes.

Portland, Ore.

Fish Passage Center editorial missed mark
From Dan Whiting, communications director, Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho)

Thank you for taking your time to write an editorial about a recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision on the Fish Passage Center (“Ninth Bunker,” Jan. 31). I agree with your assertion that Congress should “shape laws.”

However, there are two glaring errors in your coverage — facts that were correct in The Hill’s coverage of the issue in the previous day’s paper. For starters, the “local utility” that is required to spill additional water over its dams is the Bonneville Power Administration, a government agency. Despite your claim, they have never contributed to Senator Craig’s campaign. If they did, that would be a story. Second, you claim the language was “added in conference.” At least your reporter got it right in her story when she said it “traveled through the committee process unchallenged.” The language was included in the original report accompanying the Senate bill, from the subcommittee level through final passage of the Conference Report.

Washington, D.C.

Vietnam War’s lesson: cut off Iraq war funds
From J. Norvill Jones, staff member, Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 1964-1979; chief of staff, 1977-1979

I would like to think that the Iraq resolution soon to come before the Senate will make a difference in changing Bush’s policy but it will not. Nothing short of cutting off the funds will work.

I say that from the perspective of having worked for the 10 years of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War as the principal staff assistant on Vietnam matters to members of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Democrat and Republican. From my perch, I saw how presidential bull-headedness by Johnson and Nixon, a failure to face reality, was catastrophic to the American and the Vietnamese people. Now another isolated president, ignoring public and Congressional opinion, is leading America deeper into another swamp. No amount of Congressional advice changed how Johnson and Nixon acted. Only money talks to presidents.

Many members of Congress do not realize, if they ever knew, that the Vietnam War was ended, not because President Nixon recognized it as unwinnable, but only because Congress, by incremental acts, used their power of the purse to limit our military involvement and, ultimately, completely cut off funds for any military action in Indo-China. Support our troops, don’t cut and run, a pullout means a bloodbath — we heard it all then as now. Fortunately for America and the Vietnamese, Congress, led by Senators like Fulbright and Cooper, had the courage to do what needed to be done. Resolutions of opposition to Bush’s plan may make members feel better but they will not end the killing of American troops and innocent Iraqis. …

Alexandria, Va.