Sportsmen's Privacy Protection Act

Mr. President, today, I introduce a bill to direct the Secretary of the Interior to hold a lease sale within one year in the area known as 181. This bill does not in any way alter the moratorium law on the OCS. The areas covered under this bill are not under executive or congressional moratorium. Furthermore, this bill protects a 100 mile buffer from the coastline of the State of Florida and it protects the prerogative of the United States armed forces to perform military activities in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico. These protections are explicit in the bill and can not be disputed.

But more than that, this bill seeks to protect the American people from the rising cost of heating their homes. Only six years ago, the price of natural gas in the U.S. was $2 per million btu. In the past few months, we have witnessed the price of natural gas rise above as much as $14 per million btu. This morning, amidst a winter of above- average temperatures throughout much of the United States, the price of natural gas was over $8 per million btu. In countries competing for our jobs, the price of the same commodity is substantially cheaper than that, in some cases one or two dollars per million btu. This increase in cost and volatility in the price of natural gas in the United States should have the immediate attention of our Nation's policy makers.

The effects of the rising price of natural gas cut across every major sector of our Nation's economy. Natural gas is used as a major source for electricity generation, home heating, cooling and cooking, and as an essential feedstock for the production of ammonia for use in fertilizer production. It is necessary to the manufacturing of fabrics, glass, steel, plastics and paint. In short, affordable natural gas is of relevance to every region and each State in this country and it is essential to maintaining our Nation's long-term sustained economic growth. Think of the one-two punch that will be dealt to the American consumer if the U.S. housing market fails to sustain its unprecedented growth of the last few years and energy costs continue to rise. The Federal Reserve estimated that in 2004, the American people had approximately $600 billion in their pockets from refinancing and home equity loans. But an increasing amount of that money is going right back out to pay the added costs of heating those homes. Over a six year period, America's natural gas bill has risen from $50 billion to $200 billion. That is $150 billion less that the American people have to spend, save and invest. And it serves as an additional burden on the businesses that drive this nation's economy. This burden acts as a tax on the American people and only serves to stymie growth.

With this bill we seek to alleviate some of that burden. We direct the Department of the Interior to lease an area that holds a potential of nearly 5 tcf of gas. That is enough natural gas to heat and cool approximately five million homes for a period of 15 years. The natural gas from this area will have a real, substantial effect on the market and thus on the American consumer. Opening up this area will send an immediate signal to the natural gas market that Congress is pushing to quickly open up an area for production with great potential for a significant new supply of natural gas. The area is close to existing infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico and is the best hope for a large infusion of natural gas on the market in the near term.

This bill presents a choice between affordable natural gas versus burying our heads in the sand while American people foot the bill and manufacturing jobs head overseas. There is certainly bipartisan support for the idea of relieving the energy costs of the American consumer, and I think that opening Lease Sale 181 helps us achieve this goal.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, we get few opportunities to help usher in visionary projects that can potentially transform communities, both of man and of nature. I rise today to talk about such a project--one that has been discussed before on this floor when I helped unveil a vision that would rehabilitate and restore New Mexico's Bosque. I return here today to implement that vision that concerns this long neglected treasure of the Southwest.

According to an old Chinese Proverb, ``if you are thinking one year ahead, sow seed. If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree. If you are thinking 100 years ahead, educate the people.'' The bill I am introducing today encompasses the wisdom of that proverb.

The Albuquerque metropolitan area is the largest concentration of people in New Mexico. It is also the home to the irreplaceable riparian forest which runs through the heart of the city and surrounding towns that is the Bosque. It is the largest continuous cottonwood forest in the Southwest, and one of the last of its kind in the world.

Unfortunately, mismanagement, neglect, and the effects of upstream development have severely degraded the Bosque. The list of its woes is long: it has been overrun by non-native vegetation; graffiti and trash mar locations along its length; the drought and build up of hazardous fuel have contributed to fires. As a result, public access is problematical and crucial habitat for scores of species is threatened.

Yet the Middle Rio Grande Bosque remains one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the Southwest. My goal is to restore the Bosque and create a space that is open and attractive to the public.

This is a grand undertaking to be sure; but I want to ensure that this extraordinary corridor of the Southwestern desert is preserved for generations to come--not only for generations of humans, but for the diverse plant and animal species that reside in the Bosque as well.

The rehabilitation of this ecosystem leads to greater protection for threatened and endangered species; it means more migratory birds, healthier habitat for fish, and greater numbers of towering cottonwood trees. This project can increase the quality of life for a city while assuring the health and stability of an entire ecosystem. Where trash is now strewn, paths and trails will run. Where jetty jacks and discarded rubble lie, cottonwoods will grow. The dead trees and underbrush that threaten devastating fire will be replaced by healthy groves of trees. School children will be able to study and maybe catch sight of a bald eagle. The chance to help build a dynamic public space like this does not come around often, and I would like to see Congress embrace that chance on this occasion.

Having grown up along the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, the Bosque is something I treasure, and I lament the degradation that has occurred. Because of this, I have been involved in Bosque restoration since 1991, and I commend the efforts of groups like the Bosque Coalition for the work they have done, and will continue to do, along the river. I propose to build on their efforts with the legislation I am introducing today.

I remain grateful to each of the parties who has been involved with this idea since its inception. Each one contributes a very critical component of the project. The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District (the ``MRGCD") owns the vital part of the Bosque which runs from the National Hispanic Cultural Center north to the Paseo Del Norte Bridge. The MRGCD has proven to be a valuable local partner that has worked with all parties to provide options on how the Bosque can be preserved, protected and enjoyed by everyone. Additionally, the Army Corps of Engineers is developing a preliminary restoration plan for the Bosque along the Albuquerque corridor.

My bill authorizes $10 million dollars in Fiscal Year 2007 and such sums as are necessary for the following nine years to complete projects, activities, substantial ecosystem restoration, preservation, protection, and recreation facilities along the Middle Rio Grande. I urge my fellow members to help preserve this rare and diverse ecosystem and to aid the city of Albuquerque and the State of New Mexico in building a place to treasure.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I am calling upon Congress to honor Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, the man of whom it is often said ``has saved more lives than any other person who has ever lived,'' with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Dr. Borlaug is commonly known in the agricultural world and beyond as the father of the Green Revolution. His accomplishments in terms of bringing radical change to world agriculture and uplifting humanity are without parallel.

Named by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 most influential minds of the 20th Century, Norman E. Borlaug is one of the great stories of our time. Norm, as he is known to all who work with him, was born in 1914 to Norwegian-American parents outside the town of Cresco in northeast Iowa near the Iowa/Minnesota border. His boyhood was spent on a Norman Rockwellesque farm and in a one-room schoolhouse. Eventually Norm found his way to the University of Minnesota where he became a star in Big Ten Wrestling and earned a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology.

Following World War II, he spent 20 years working in the poorest areas of rural Mexico. It was there that Dr. Borlaug made his breakthrough achievement in developing a strand of wheat that could exponentially increase yields while actively resisting disease.

With the strong support of the governments involved, Dr. Borlaug's Green Revolution uplifted hundreds of thousands of the rural poor in Mexico and saved hundreds of millions from famine and outright starvation in India and Pakistan. His approach to wheat production next spread throughout the Middle East and was then adapted to rice growing, increasing the number of lives saved to more than one billion people.

In 1970 Norman E. Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the only person working in agriculture to ever be so honored, for a lifetime of work to feed a hungry world. Since then, he has received numerous honors and awards including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, The National Academy of Sciences' highest honor--the Public Service Medal, and the Rotary International Award for World Understanding and Peace.

At age 91, Dr. Borlaug continues to alleviate poverty and malnutrition. He currently serves as president of Sasakawa Global 2000 Africa Project, which seeks to extend the benefits of agricultural development to the 800 million people still mired in poverty and malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Finally, Dr. Borlaug continues as Chairman of the Council of Advisors

for the World Food Prize, an organization he created in 1986 to be the ``Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture''.

The World Food Prize presents $250,000 award each October at an international ceremony in Des Moines, IA, to the Laureate who has made an exceptional achievement similar to Dr. Borlaug's breakthrough forty years ago. Beyond recognizing these people for their personal accomplishments, Borlaug saw the World Food Prize as a means of establishing role models who would inspire others.

In the 20 years of its existence, the World Food Prize has honored Laureates from Bangladesh, India, China, Mexico, Denmark, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

While Dr. Borlaug was born in Iowa, he is truly a citizen of all of America and, indeed, of all the world. The State of Minnesota has enacted a special day of recognition in his honor; He continues as a teacher, serving as a Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University; and he has received honorary degrees from colleges and universities in virtually every state of the union.

Reflecting this fact, a year ago the U.S. Senate passed a resolution designating October 16 as World Food Prize Day in America in honor of Dr. Borlaug. Beyond that, his name is widely recognized in Mexico, India, Pakistan and the Middle East reflecting his great humanitarian achievements in those countries. And he continues to be honored throughout South Asia and Africa, for his ongoing efforts to expand the benefits of the Green Revolution to the hundreds of millions of people still suffering from chronic hunger and malnutrition.

Dr. Borlaug's achievements are in keeping with the recent presentation of Congressional Gold Medals.

For over a half century, the scientific and humanitarian achievements of Dr. Norman E. Borlaug have kept starvation at bay for millions of people in third world countries. Through the passage of this legislation, the United States Senate can recognize the humanitarian contributions Dr. Borlaug has made to the entire world. The man who has saved more lives than any other person who has ever lived certainly deserves the highest honor the Congress can bestow.

As the only working farmer in the U.S. Senate, I am proud and honored to introduce this important bill, and I call upon my colleagues to support this noble legislation. I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I am privileged to introduce a bill today that provides a national designation to the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, WY. As it should, a national designation signifies something unique that belongs to all the people of our Nation. Just as President Theodore Roosevelt recognized the uniqueness of Devils Tower in Wyoming when he proclaimed it to be the first national monument, my bill recognizes the uniqueness of the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, WY. Wildlife museums are not unusual in the United States. Art museums are not unusual in the United States. This museum, however, sets itself apart from all the others as it focuses on wildlife art. This interdisciplinary approach fosters education as the museum uses art to teach people about wildlife and encourages wildlife lovers to explore art. The museum's educational focus is clear in their motto ``bringing people, wildlife and fine art together.''

The person responsible for bringing National Museum of Wildlife Art to my attention is Margaret, Maggie, Webster Scarlett. Given her involvement and accomplishments in the museum world, Maggie knows a worthy museum when she sees it. In 2002, the Senate confirmed Maggie as a member of the National Museum and Library Services

Board. This 24-member advisory body includes 20 Presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed members of the general public who have demonstrated expertise in, or commitment to, library or museum services. She also is currently a member and past president of the board of trustees of the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

The National Museum of Wildlife Art was founded in 1987 with a private gift of a collection of art and is accredited with the American Association of Museums. The National Museum of Wildlife Art features a collection of over 2,000 pieces of art portraying wildlife. Dating from 2000 B.C. to the present, the collection chronicles much of the history of wildlife in art, focusing primarily on European and American painting and sculpture. The collection of American art from the 19th and 20th centuries is particularly strong, recording European exploration of the American West. Many of these works predate photography, making them vital representations of the frontier era in the history of the United States.

Using the collection as a base, the central themes to the museum's programming are connections between people, wildlife, and fine art. Even before this designation, people from across the United States had discovered the National Museum of Wildlife Art. Since its inception, it has become an American West destination attraction with an annual attendance of 92,000 visitors from all over the world and an award- winning Web site that receives more than 10,000 visits per week.

These visitors find wildlife on the walls of the museum but also outside of its doors. The National Museum of Wildlife Art is housed in an architecturally significant and award-winning 51,000 square foot facility that overlooks the 28,000 acre National Elk Refuge and is adjacent to the Grand Teton National Park. The museum displays and interprets this wildlife art in one of the few remaining areas of the United States where native wildlife roams abundantly.

The works in the museum are united by their subject and their quality. The permanent collection of the National Museum of Wildlife Art has grown to more than 3,000 works by important historic American artists including Edward Hicks, Anna Hyatt Huntington, Charles M. Russell, William Merritt Chase, and Alexander Calder, as well as contemporary American artists Steve Kestrel, Bart Walter, Nancy Howe, John Nieto, Jamie Wyeth, and others.

The National Museum of Wildlife Art seeks to educate a diverse audience through collecting fine art focused on wildlife, presenting exceptional exhibitions, providing community, regional, national, and international outreach, and presenting extensive educational programming for adults and children. A national designation presents a great opportunity to use the invaluable resources of the National Museum of Wildlife Art to teach the Nation's school children, through on-site visits, traveling exhibits, classroom curriculum, on-line distance learning, and other educational initiatives.

I look forward to officially recognizing the renown of the National Museum of Wildlife Art through this bill.

Mr. President, I rise to introduce the ``Sportsmen's Privacy Protection Act'' to address a number or privacy concerns I have heard from my constituents. When I worked with my colleagues to pass the 1996 welfare reform law, we made sure that we created a system to hold parents accountable for supporting their children. A provision included in that law obligated States to implement new requirements to encourage payment of child support that cross-referenced Social Security Numbers of applicants for drivers' licenses, professional licenses, occupational licenses and recreational licenses. States that failed to implement these requirements would have faced the loss of Federal welfare funding.

Under current state law, Pennsylvania is required to revoke or deny recreational licenses, including hunting and fishing licenses of parents who are behind on child support payments. As a result, any individual that applies or renews a driver's, occupational or recreational license must include their Social Security Number on their application form. And it is the application that is the problem. In Pennsylvania and many other States, the drivers', professional and occupational records are automated or computerized, while the recreational licenses remain in a paper book often with multiple entries on a page. In my view, there are significant privacy concerns to continuing this provision as it relates to recreational licenses such as hunting and fishing.

In preparing this bill we asked the Congressional Research Service, CRS, about the effectiveness of this provision. CRS spoke with the Pennsylvania Child Support Program, PACSP, regarding the effectiveness of retracting or denying individuals hunting and fishing licensees. CRS indicated to my staff that there have been very few instances where individuals have been denied hunting and fishing licenses for falling behind in child support payments. In the overwhelming majority of the instances where they have been denied, the custodial parent will tip- off PACSP of the non-custodial parent's interest in obtaining a hunting and fishing license. PACSP can then notify the PA Hunting and Gaming Commission to deny the non-custodial parent a license.

I have heard from a lot of hunters about their legitimate concerns in giving their Social Security Number when applying for a hunting license. This bill will repeal the Federal mandate that requires States to collect Social Security Numbers for recreational licenses. The requirement for drivers', professional and occupational licenses would remain in place. My home State colleague, Representative English, has introduced a companion bill in the House of Representatives. I urge my colleagues to consider cosponsoring this legislation that restores the privacy rights of recreational hunters and fisherman, while maintaining an effective system of child support enforcement.

Mr. President, I rise to introduce the ``Sportsmen's Privacy Protection Act'' to address a number or privacy concerns I have heard from my constituents. When I worked with my colleagues to pass the 1996 welfare reform law, we made sure that we created a system to hold parents accountable for supporting their children. A provision included in that law obligated States to implement new requirements to encourage payment of child support that cross-referenced Social Security Numbers of applicants for drivers' licenses, professional licenses, occupational licenses and recreational licenses. States that failed to implement these requirements would have faced the loss of Federal welfare funding.

Under current state law, Pennsylvania is required to revoke or deny recreational licenses, including hunting and fishing licenses of parents who are behind on child support payments. As a result, any individual that applies or renews a driver's, occupational or recreational license must include their Social Security Number on their application form. And it is the application that is the problem. In Pennsylvania and many other States, the drivers', professional and occupational records are automated or computerized, while the recreational licenses remain in a paper book often with multiple entries on a page. In my view, there are significant privacy concerns to continuing this provision as it relates to recreational licenses such as hunting and fishing.

In preparing this bill we asked the Congressional Research Service, CRS, about the effectiveness of this provision. CRS spoke with the Pennsylvania Child Support Program, PACSP, regarding the effectiveness of retracting or denying individuals hunting and fishing licensees. CRS indicated to my staff that there have been very few instances where individuals have been denied hunting and fishing licenses for falling behind in child support payments. In the overwhelming majority of the instances where they have been denied, the custodial parent will tip- off PACSP of the non-custodial parent's interest in obtaining a hunting and fishing license. PACSP can then notify the PA Hunting and Gaming Commission to deny the non-custodial parent a license.

I have heard from a lot of hunters about their legitimate concerns in giving their Social Security Number when applying for a hunting license. This bill will repeal the Federal mandate that requires States to collect Social Security Numbers for recreational licenses. The requirement for drivers', professional and occupational licenses would remain in place. My home State colleague, Representative English, has introduced a companion bill in the House of Representatives. I urge my colleagues to consider cosponsoring this legislation that restores the privacy rights of recreational hunters and fisherman, while maintaining an effective system of child support enforcement.