Senator Larry Craig is zeroing out funding for the Fish Passage Center, an organization that collects slamon population data in the Pacific Northwest. It seems Senator Craig believes the data is too advocacy-oriented, perhaps because it suggests that reducing water flow through hydro turbines (and increasing spillage over hydropower dams) is necessary to maintain current salmon populations. Historically the Fish Passage Center has been funded by the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency that sells subsidized hydropower from federal dams. This year, however, Senator Craig inserted language into the energy and water appropriations bill blocking any BPA funds from going to the center during the coming fiscal year. According to a Craig spokesman, "This is about improving the program, taking advocacy out of science and ensuring we have dams and salmon in the Northwest."