The 1996 amendment to the Power Act directed the Council to appoint an 11-member panel of independent scientists and additional peer review groups.  These scientists provide advice and information regarding scientific aspects of projects that the Council may recommend for funding by the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA).  The ISRP and peer review groups have responsibilities in three areas:

· Review projects proposed for Bonneville funding to implement the Council's program

The Power Act directs the ISRP to review projects that are proposed for Bonneville funding to implement the Council's program.  The Act specifies the review standards that the ISRP is to use and the kinds of recommendations to make to the Council.  The Council must fully consider the ISRP's report prior to making its funding recommendations to Bonneville, and must explain in writing wherever the Council's recommendations differ from the ISRP's.

· Retrospective review of program accomplishments

The 1996 amendment also directs the ISRP, with assistance from the Scientific Peer Review Groups, to annually review the results of prior-year expenditures based upon the project review criteria and submit its findings to Council.
The retrospective review should focus on the measurable benefits to fish and wildlife made through projects funded by Bonneville and previously reviewed.  The ISRP's findings should provide biological information for the Council's ongoing accounting and evaluation of Bonneville's expenditures and the level of success in meeting the objectives of the program, as described in the monitoring and evaluation section of the 2000 Fish and Wildlife Program.  Also as part of the ISRP's annual retrospective report, the ISRP should summarize its province review efforts and identify the major basinwide programmatic issues gleaned from the province reviews.

· Review projects funded through Bonneville's reimbursable program

In 1998, the U.S. Congress' Senate-House conference report on the Fiscal Year 1999 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill directed the Independent Scientific Review Panel to review the fish and wildlife projects, programs, or measures included in federal agency budgets that are reimbursed by Bonneville, using the same standards and making recommendations as in its review of the projects proposed to implement the Council's program.

The four major components of the reimbursable program are:
1) Columbia River Fisheries Mitigation Program (Corps of Engineers)
2) Fish and Wildlife Operations and Maintenance Budget (Corps of Engineers)
3) Lower Snake River Compensation Plan (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) and
4) Leavenworth Hatchery (Bureau of Reclamation).

Specific Fiscal Year 2005 Reviews

For Fiscal Year 2005 (FY2005), the ISRP has seven categories of review assignments:
1) The Retrospective Report,
2) Council Research Plan,
3) Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation Plans and Proposals,
4) Subbasin Plan Reviews,
5) Proposal Reviews for Council and BPA Project Solicitations,  
6) Reimbursable Reviews,
7) Major capital construction projects under the Council's Three-Step Process, and Fish and Wildlife Program project-related reviews identified in the project selection process.

Actual costs of projects vary considerably with the estimates depending on availability of members to participate in reviews, meetings required for the reviews, and the number, size, and complexity of documents submitted for review.  For example, there is no way to know how many proposals will be submitted in response to a Council or BPA proposal solicitation.