Heart Mountain Relocation Center Study Act of 2010

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

Mr. Speaker, between 1942 and 1945, Heart Mountain was one of 10 confinement facilities for Japanese Americans run by Franklin Roosevelt's War Relocation authority. At its peak, the camp confined nearly 11,000 people, most of whom were United States citizens.

This bill would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a Special Resource Study to determine the suitability and feasibility of designating the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in the State of Wyoming as a unit of the National Park System.

The park, if created, would be on Bureau of Land Management land and on land owned by the Wyoming Heart Mountain Foundation.

Former United States Senator Alan Simpson and former Congressman and Secretary of Commerce and Transportation, Norman Mineta, met each other as boys when the future Secretary Mineta was interned at Heart Mountain and future Senator Simpson was growing up in Park County.

Both now serve on the board of the Wyoming Heart Mountain Foundation. Under their leadership, the foundation is currently building an interpretive center that is scheduled to open next year. If the park is created, the Wyoming Heart Mountain Foundation has indicated its willingness to donate its land to the Park Service. No additional acquisition of private land is contemplated. Creation of this park has strong local support in Park County, Wyoming. And as the author of the bill, I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for it.

Mr. Speaker, though the gentlelady from Guam raises an excellent point about the fact that I have questioned the propriety during these tough economic times of purchasing land in the previous bill, H.R. 4686, that is a proposal for the National Park Service to purchase land, and authorizing $4 million to do so, whereas the Heart Mountain proposal is to donate the land if the National Park Service chooses to accept it and recommend it as a unit of the National Park Service. That is the difference in the bills, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3989) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study to determine the suitability and feasibility of adding the Heart Mountain Relocation Center, in the State of Wyoming, as a unit of the National Park System.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 3989 was introduced by Congresswoman Cynthia Lummis in November of 2009.

Heart Mountain Relocation Center was one of 10 Japanese internment camps set up during World War II when anti-Japanese sentiment was running rampant following the attack on Pearl Harbor. At its peak, nearly 11,000 Japanese Americans who were forced from their communities in California, Washington and Oregon, were detained in Heart Mountain's tar-paper barracks.

H.R. 3989 would direct the National Park Service to construct a special resource study to determine the national significance of Heart Mountain and the suitability and feasibility of designating it as a unit of the National Park System.

Mr. Speaker, we support the passage of H.R. 3989.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I again urge Members to support the bill.

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