To provide for the conveyance of Federal lands, improvements, equipment, and resource materials at the Oxford Research Station in Granville County, North Carolina, to the State of North Carolina.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2119) to provide for the use by the State of North Carolina of Federal lands, improvements, equipment, and resource materials at the Oxford Research Station in Granville County, North Carolina, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2119 sponsored by the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Butterfield).

H.R. 2119, as amended, would allow the Forest Service to transfer a currently disused facility in North Carolina to the State of North Carolina. The facility has not been used in several years, and in fact, the land on which it sits was donated by the State of North Carolina to the Federal Government for the purpose of establishing a research station.

The administration supports the proposed transfer, and the State intends to use the facility to do research on invasive species, a very worthwhile project.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

House of Representatives,

Committee on Agriculture,

Washington, DC, October 5, 2004.

Hon. Tom Davis,

Chairman, House Committee on Government Reform, Rayburn House

Office Building, Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. Chairman: I would like to take this opportunity to

share with you a copy of H.R. 2119 as passed by the Committee

on Agriculture. As you know, the Committee on Government

Reform has received an additional referral of this

legislation and I am respectfully requesting that this

legislation be discharged from your committee. This

legislation, sponsored by Representative Balance would

provide for the use by the State of North Carolina of Federal

lands, improvements, equipment, and resource materials at the

Oxford Research Station in Granville County, North Carolina.

As the committee of primary jurisdiction, on September 23,

2004, the Committee on Agriculture favorably reported this

legislation by an affirmative voice vote. As this bill

prepares to move to the floor I am asking for your discharge

to move this legislation forward.

This discharge in no way affects your jurisdiction over the

subject matter of the bill and it will not serve as precedent

for future referrals. In addition, should a conference on the

bill be necessary, I would support your request to have the

Committee on Government Reform represented on the conference

committee.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter and look

forward to working with your committee in the future.

Sincerely,

Bob Goodlatte,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the gentleman from North Carolina on bringing forward a fine piece of legislation. I thank my colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm), the ranking member, for his work on this and other bills that we brought before the House tonight. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte) and the ranking member, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) for bringing up this legislation today.

The Oxford Research Station was established in 1912 as a crop and forestry research station. The station facilities include computerized curing barns, office facilities, a shop building, several equipment shelters, a tobacco evaluation facility and underground irrigation systems.

For 92 years, the station's marquee programs have been tobacco- related. Accomplishments at the Oxford Tobacco Research Station include fertility investigations concerning tobacco plants' nutrition; development of the first tobacco varieties with resistance to Granvill Wilt and black shank disease; the invention of tobacco bulk curing barns; genetic studies to develop new varieties resistance to Granville Wilt and black shank diseases; evaluation of crop breeding lines, curing experiments, computerized monitoring and control of humidity and temperatures; and many others.

As long a list of accomplishments that the station has accumulated in its 92 years of service to American agriculture, the station now stands unused by USDA, and American taxpayers are still paying for upkeep and maintenance. An unofficial estimate, Mr. Speaker, from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service for fiscal year 2005 is that the station will cost $227,000 for basic upkeep.

Mr. Speaker, one man's trash is another man's treasure. USDA does not want or need the Oxford Research Station, but the North Carolina Department of Agriculture does. If the facility is conveyed to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, the State will move its entire biological control program to the station. The State intends to use the quarantine facilities to research invasive species without risk of introducing them to the national environment of our State.

Among the species to be studied include the hemlock wooly adelgid, an insect that has been identified in Public Law 108-148, the President's Healthy Forest Initiative, as a forest-damaging insect. The facility will also research control methods of the Sudden Oak Death Fungus.

The people of North Carolina, Mr. Speaker, would be grateful for the passage of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my support for H.R. 2119, legislation to allow the Secretary of Agriculture to convey to the State of North Carolina approximately 4.28 acres of Federal lands administered as part of the Oxford Research Station in Granville, North Carolina.

The bill addresses concerns raised by USDA with the original legislation. In a letter dated March 30, 2004, USDA acknowledged the strong, equitable interest the State of North Carolina has in the research station and stated it will gladly exercise the authority provided to convey the Oxford Research to the State of North Carolina once the legislation is enacted.

According to USDA estimates, the amendment will not significantly affect the Federal budget. In fact, the research station is currently unused and actually costs the USDA's property inventory funding to maintain it.

For all these reasons, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Butterfield).

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate now proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 2119, which is at the desk.

I ask unanimous consent the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, and any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that I may hereafter be considered as the first sponsor of H.R. 2119, a bill originally introduced by Representative Ballance of North Carolina, for the purposes of adding cosponsors and requesting reprintings pursuant to clause 7 of rule XII.