Kingman and Heritage Islands Act of 2009

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2092) to amend the National Children's Island Act of 1995 to expand allowable uses for Kingman and Heritage Islands by the District of Columbia, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks.

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

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Committee on Oversight and Government

Reform, I present the amended version of H.R. 2092, the Kingman and Heritage Islands Act of 2009, for consideration. This legislation would permit the District of Columbia to use Kingman and Heritage Islands for educational, environmental, and recreational purposes, thereby benefiting District residents and visitors.

I would like to thank the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton) for introducing this bill and for her hard work and advocacy in support of this legislation. I would also like to thank our committee chairman, Ed Towns of Brooklyn, New York, for his leadership and support on this particular measure.

Kingman and Heritage Islands were created in the Anacostia River from sediment gathered by the Army Corps of Engineers back in 1916. The islands were managed by the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior from 1916 to 1996. In 1996, Congress passed the National Children's Island Act which required the Federal Government, specifically the Secretary of the Interior, to transfer title of these islands to the District of Columbia for use as a children's recreational park. The law included a reversionary provision allowing the Department of the Interior to reclaim the islands if the theme park was not built, which is the reason H.R. 2092 is now needed.

In the years following passage of the Children's Island Act, a variety of problems, including lengthy litigation, prevented full implementation of the original goal. The National Park Service did not take any steps towards reclaiming the land for another use. As times have changed, the District no longer believes that a theme park is the best use of the space.

In 2003, the District of Columbia developed the Anacostia Waterfront Framework Plan to redevelop and revitalize the Anacostia waterfront pursuant to a memorandum of understanding between the District and several Federal agencies, including the National Park Service. The waterfront plan envisions the use of the islands for nature-focused exhibitions and educational uses. The plan calls for a nature reserve park to restore the ecosystem and provide usable open space for visitors. The renovated islands will also include a memorial tree grove dedicated to District of Columbia schoolchildren who were victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The District has taken steps towards implementing the plan by using the islands for environmental education programs. Currently, a renovated pedestrian bridge provides access to these islands for environmental programs and viewing by the general public.

H.R. 2092 would clarify that these activities are permissible under the law. The bill would amend the Children's Island Act to expand the allowable uses for the islands to include recreational, environmental, and educational uses consistent with the Anacostia Waterfront Plan.

The bill would retain a reversionary interest for the Federal Government for 30 years from the date of enactment of H.R. 2092. The Federal Government would be able to reclaim the islands in that period if the Secretary of the Interior determines that they are not being used for recreational, environmental, or educational purposes.

The provision retains a role for the Federal Government in ensuring that the islands are used for the purposes stated in the Children's Island Act, as amended by H.R. 2092. At the same time, the provision encourages the District of Columbia to use the islands for productive purposes.

As Chair of the subcommittee with jurisdiction and oversight over the District of Columbia, I am pleased to see that the District of Columbia government is moving forward with its plans to develop and provide appropriate environmental and educational experiences, particularly for its children and young people. I wholeheartedly support the city's efforts in this regard and urge my colleagues to do the same by voting in favor of H.R. 2092, the Kingman and Heritage Islands Act of 2009.

Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I would like to enter into the Record an exchange of letters between our committee, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the House's Natural Resources Committee, which expresses Chairman Rahall's and the Natural Resources Committee's support of H.R. 2092 and waives their jurisdictional interest in this bill.

House of Representatives,

Committee on Natural Resources,

Washington, DC, October 7, 2009.

Hon. Edolphus Towns,

Chairman, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,

Rayburn H.O.B., Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. Chairman: Thank you for the opportunity to work

with you on H.R. 2092, the Kingman and Heritage Islands Act

of 2009, which contains matters within the jurisdiction of

the Committee on Natural Resources.

Knowing of your interest in expediting this legislation, I

will not seek a sequential referral of H.R. 2092. Of course,

this waiver is not intended to prejudice any future

jurisdictional claims over the provisions of this legislation

or similar language. I also reserve the right to seek to have

conferees named from the Committee on Natural Resources on

these provisions, and request your support if such a request

is made.

Please place this letter into the Congressional Record

during consideration of H.R. 2092 on the House floor.

With warm regards, I am

Sincerely,

Nick J. Rahall, II,

Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), who is the sponsor, the lead sponsor and the driving force behind H.R. 2092.

Mr. Speaker, I simply ask all Members on both sides of the aisle to support this measure sponsored by Ms. Norton, the delegate from the District of Columbia, and also supported by Mr. Rahall, the chairman of Natural Resources.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam President, I rise today to speak about the Kingman and Heritage Islands Act of 2010, H.R. 6278. In particular, I wish to describe the legislative history and intent of this act. Earlier this year, essentially identical legislation, H.R. 2092, passed the House and the Senate but has not been enacted for reasons that I will address in this statement. Therefore, the House and Senate committee reports describing H.R. 2092 should be referenced as applicable legislative history for H.R. 6278.

D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced H.R. 2092, The Kingman and Heritage Islands Act of 2009, on April 23, 2009. The bill was considered by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on September 10, 2009, and ordered reported favorably with an amendment. On October 7, 2009, H.R. 2092 passed the House of Representatives under suspension of the rules and the subsequent day, H.R. 2092 was referred to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The committee considered the bill on May 17, 2010, and ordered the bill reported to the full Senate with one amendment. On September 27, 2010, the Senate passed H.R. 2092 by unanimous consent. Due to a mistake, however, the version that the Senate passed on September 27 contained a few drafting errors and did not reflect all of the modifications that our committee had intended.

Rather than seek the enactment of the Senate-passed version of H.R. 2092, and in order to avoid any confusion among the government entities responsible for implementing the bill, Delegate Norton subsequently introduced H.R. 6278 with the support of the chairman and ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. H.R. 6278 consists of the text of H.R. 2092 as my committee had amended it and intended it to pass in the Senate. Delegate Norton introduced H.R. 6278 on September 29, 2010, and it passed the House of Representatives on November 16, 2010, under suspension of the rules. After being received in the Senate, the bill was held at the desk and today it will pass the Senate by unanimous consent.

Because neither the relevant House nor Senate committee had the opportunity to file committee reports describing H.R. 6278, the committee reports describing H.R. 2092 should be considered as applicable legislative history for this bill. The report filed by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform report is House Report 111-275 and the report filed by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is Senate Report 111-300. In the remainder of my statement I further describe the background and intent of the legislation.

The Kingman and Heritage Islands Act of 2010 would allow the District of Columbia to use all of Heritage Island and portions of Kingman Island--the Islands--for recreational, environmental and educational uses. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers created Kingman and Heritage Islands in the District of Columbia from sediment dredged from the Anacostia River.

Until the enactment in 1996 of the National Children's Island Act of 1995--the act--the National Park Service held administrative jurisdiction on both islands. The act required the Federal Government to transfer title of the islands to the District of Columbia for use as a children's recreational park. It also mandated that title to the islands would revert back to the Federal Government if the District did not use the land in a manner consistent with the purposes specified in the act. The Secretary of the Interior transferred title of the Islands to the District via quitclaim deed in January 1997. In 2000, the Secretary of Interior wrote the District a letter stating that the District had fully lived up to the letter and spirit of the act and that DC should retain title to the Islands.

DC has not developed a children's recreational park on the Islands, and since that time, it has re-evaluated its

needs and interests and no longer seeks to use the Islands for that purpose. In 2003, in accordance with a memorandum of understanding between DC and several Federal agencies, including the NPS, the District developed the Anacostia Waterfront Framework Plan--Waterfront Plan--to redevelop and revitalize the Anacostia waterfront. The Waterfront Plan envisions using the islands for nature-themed exhibitions and educational projects. The District also has developed a Comprehensive Plan to serve as a general policy document to provide overall guidance for future planning and development in DC.

Recently, the District has taken steps toward implementing the Waterfront Plan. In the summer of 2007, the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, now part of the DC Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, partnered with a number of other organizations to begin using the Islands to host environmental programs and cleanup. Since May 2008, Living Classrooms, a nonprofit educational organization with a focus on experiential learning, has been managing the islands and running programs there, including educational programming and volunteer events aimed at restoring the Islands.

To ensure that the activities DC has authorized do not raise any questions about its title to the Islands, the District has asked Congress to amend the act to sanction the broader work now occurring on the Islands. H.R. 6278 would do just that, by amending the National Children's Island Act in order to allow the District to conduct recreational, environmental and educational activities on the Islands, consistent with the Waterfront Plan and the District's Comprehensive Plan. If any portion of the land is used for an activity that is not recreational, environmental or educational, the reversionary process as outlined in the bill could begin.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6278) to amend the National Children's Island Act of 1995 to expand allowable uses for Kingman and Heritage Islands by the District of Columbia, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume and rise to support H.R. 6278, the Kingman and Heritage Islands Act of 2010. This bill would permit the District of Columbia to use the Kingman and Heritage Islands for recreational, environmental, and educational purposes. I introduced this bill on September 29, 2010.

The bulk of the language in the bill was considered by the Oversight Committee, the full House, and the Senate in another measure, H.R. 2092. However, because of a clerical error in the Senate, minor changes were not included in the bill when it was considered by the Senate. I have introduced H.R. 6278 to ensure the correct language is passed by both Houses. This bill includes the House-passed language in H.R. 2092, and captures the minor changes agreed upon in a bipartisan fashion by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

The amendment agreed to by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee makes it clear that the islands may revert back to the Federal Government in the future if they are not used for the purposes specified in the bill.

I should note that the House Oversight Committee did file a report on H.R. 2092, and that report is an important part of the legislative history of the bill we are considering now.

Mr. Speaker, we are very pleased that this bill has come in time before the House. The original act transferred title of this land on the Anacostia bill, but a prior Congress authorized it for another purpose, and, therefore, since we in the District of Columbia want to use this for environmental, recreational, and educational purposes, it was necessary to come again with a bill.

This is a bill that involves 40 acres of tidal marsh in Kingman Lake, currently being restored by the Army Corps, the District, and local environmental teaching groups. These islands are beautiful little places in the midst of the concrete of a big city. They, for example, have a memorial tree grove dedicated to the three District of Columbia schoolchildren who were on a trip sponsored by the National Geographic on a plane that went down in the September 11 attack on our country. This quaint set of islands has guided trails and interpretive stations.

As far as my own work in the Congress is concerned, Mr. Speaker, the dedication of these islands to environmental, teaching, and recreation purposes complements my own work on the Anacostia River. I am the primary sponsor of the Anacostia River initiative. There's already a 10-year plan of the jurisdictions in this region to restore the Anacostia River so that it is no longer one of the most polluted rivers in America.

To that end, I regard this bill as another manifestation of our determination to return the river to its original state and to allow the use of these small islands for the recreational and environmental purposes of the citizens of the District of Columbia and to all of those who visit our city and would like some relief from the big-city life and will find it right in the midst of what appears to be nothing other than a big-city landscape and will be relieved if they are privileged to visit these islands.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this measure, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the subcommittee, Mr. Lynch, not only for yielding to me, but especially for his hard work on this bill, and I thank our ranking member for his important work on this bill as well.

I want to associate myself with your remarks, Mr. Chairman, simply to indicate that this land is already in the possession of the District of Columbia, and yet the subcommittee had to be in pains to make sure that the reversionary clause was in keeping with the last bill, which I also sponsored, and with the changes we have asked for.

The District took what was an abandoned man-made island, but in our most valuable Anacostia River, and tried to make something of it when it looked like there were some people who wanted to make a children's theme park. That did not occur, yet we were left with a bill that said this shall be a children's theme park or it reverts. It was up to me to come and change the reversionary clause when the District abandoned the idea.

If I may say so, I am pleased the District has abandoned the idea and wants to use Kingman and Heritage Island to revitalize the Anacostia River and to essentially return this plot of land to use as an environmental natural reserve park which will help to restore the ecosystem and provide usable space, in addition, when people want to enjoy the river and nature in a place that is really in the middle of the District of Columbia, a big urban center.

The District also wants to build an environmental education center. You can see how well the uses fit the land than even a children's theme park. I am particularly enamored with the remembrance grove. We have not forgotten the three children who were on the plane that went down on 9/11 who had won a contest by the National Geographic Association and who were looking forward to that trip.

I am particularly pleased that the city's new plan complements my own work on the Anacostia Watershed Initiative bill which this Congress passed last session. I thank the chairman and the ranking member, and may I thank Mr. Rahall and his ranking member as well for waiving jurisdiction and allowing us to get on with the work of taking Kingman and Heritage Islands back to where they belong.

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

I simply want to say I am happy to support H.R. 2092 and the economic development efforts of the District of Columbia. I rise in support of this bill. I will insert the remainder of my comments into the Record.

The Kingman and Heritage Islands Act of 2009, passed out of Committee earlier in September, which amends the National Children's Island Act of 1995 to allow the District of Columbia to move forward with its economic development plans.

The bill will make Kingman and Heritage Islands a center for environmental education and recreation, and will provide for restoration of the Anacostia River ecosystem. The renovated islands will include a particularly appropriate memorial tree grove dedicated to the three District of Columbia school children who were victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Kingman and Heritage Islands were created by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1920s as part of the Anacostia Tidal Flats Reclamation project and were managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior and National Park Service through 1996.

At the request of District officials, Congress originally dedicated the two islands to be developed as a child-oriented theme park. The Act transferred title of certain Park Service property in Anacostia Park, including Heritage Island and a portion of Kingman Island, to the District of Columbia. However, the law included a reversionary provision if a theme park was not built, necessitating this bill.

The District has developed the ``Anacostia Waterfront Framework Plan'' to redevelop and revitalize the Anacostia waterfront, and this legislation will help them accomplish this goal.

I am happy to support this bill and the economic development efforts of the District of Columbia, and I urge my colleagues to support passage of H.R. 2092.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, this is a good bill with a lot of good work behind it. I appreciate the work my colleagues have done on this bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.