Rota Cultural and Natural Resources Study Act

I would like to thank the distinguished Member from Guam, Chairwoman Bordallo, for assisting us and managing the bill through today's session. I also want to thank Congressman Raul Grijalva, chairman on the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, and his staff for helping him bring this bill to the floor, and thank Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall for moving this bill through the committee.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation means a lot to my constituents on Rota. I would like to add to the Record a letter of support for H.R. 4686 from the mayor of Rota, the Honorable Melchor A. Mendiola.

Mr. Speaker, it was residents of Rota who first asked me to explore the possibility of a national park on their island. H.R. 4686 does just that. It authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to determine whether the cultural, archaeological, historical, and natural resources of Rota are of national significance. If they are of national significance, the bill asks the Secretary to report to Congress on the feasibility and suitability of designating parts of Rota as a unit of our great national parks system.

At the hearing on this bill before Chairman Grijalva's subcommittee, Rota was represented by Teresita A. Santos, who is also Rota's representative in the Northern Mariana Islands House of Representatives. She described her island to the subcommittee. She spoke of the ancient Latte Stone Culture of the original Chamorro people at Mochan Village and Alaguan Bay Village and of the Taga quarry, where the ancients carved out the massive stones that held up their houses. She spoke of the Chugai Pictorial Cave where these same people left their drawings. She spoke of the remnant structures from the Japanese era of colonialism in the early 20th century, and she spoke of the unique limestone forests, home to rare and endangered bird and plant life which remain intact on parts of Rota; whereas, on other islands in the Northern Marianas, volcanic activity and the impact of modern-day humans have largely removed those forests.

Representative Santos also showed the subcommittee photographs of the places she was describing. The presentation was so powerful that one of the subcommittee members called Rota ``a jewel.'' I could not agree more. But this jewel needs protection.

As the Interior Department witness at the hearing noted, Rota is today at a crossroads. Development is bearing down. Just a few miles across the ocean, a massive buildup of U.S. military forces is about to commence on the island of Guam. That growth is bound to spill over to Rota as military families look for weekend getaways and the waters and beaches of Rota beckon.

The national park study offers the people of Rota an opportunity, I believe, to make some thoughtful decisions about what is truly important to preserve. The process of public input and discussion--that will be as much a part of the study as the cataloguing of natural and cultural resources--will help the people of Rota make these determinations. And if a park is recommended and one day designated by Congress, that clear definition of what most needs to be formally preserved will also allow development on the rest of Rota to proceed with more freedom.

It is the acknowledged goal of Rota to be a site for ecotourism, so no development there will be conducted in a way that would spoil the very character of the island that draws the ecotourist. In fact, the presence of a national park, which underscores the rarity and importance of the archaeological, historical, and natural resources I have described on Rota, would itself complement and enhance this goal of becoming an ecotourism destination.

It's a win-win. We can spur economic growth, create jobs, and increase protection of significant national treasures. But for any of this to occur requires, first, the study authorized by my bill. So let us take the first step today, and I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of H.R. 4686.

Northern Mariana Islands June 22, 2010.

Office of the Mayor,

Municipality of Rota,

Hon. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan

U.S. House of Representatives, Washington DC

Dear Congressman Sablan: Congratulations for getting the

Rota National Park Study (H.R. 4686) approved by the U.S.

House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee. It is

an important step towards approval by the U.S. House of

Representatives.

It is very important that a National Park in Rota be

established as it would greatly enhance Rota's attraction as

a tourist destination. It would also contribute significantly

towards our overall economic development. As you pointed out,

eco-tourism has been targeted as a most favorable type of

tourism for Rota. A well planned and well structured national

park would be the best avenue to develop Rota's eco-tourism

potential. Please convey to the member of the U.S. Congress

that the people of Rota support the establishment of a

National Park in Rota.

On behalf of the people of Rota, I wish to thank you for

your efforts and please do not hesitate to contact me should

you need my assistance.

Sincerely,

Melchor A. Mendiola,

Mayor of Rota.

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.

I thank the gentlewoman from Wyoming for yielding.

I rise in support of H.R. 4686, but also H.R. 4514, the Colonel Charles Young Home Study Act, the bill previously discussed.

Just to talk about the previous bill, if I may, the bill directs the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study of the Colonel Charles Young Home located in Xenia, Ohio, to determine if the home could be designated as a unit of the National Park Service. The Colonel Charles Young Home, built in 1859, is a national historic landmark and has been designated as the future site of the National Museum of African American Military History.

Colonel Charles Young was a distinguished officer and Buffalo soldier and the third African American to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He served in the Army for 37 years, carrying out a variety of assignments throughout the U.S., Philippines, Haiti, Liberia, and Mexico. When forced into retirement--and this is very interesting--by the Army for medical reasons, Charles Young rode his horse 500 miles from his home in Wilberforce, Ohio, to Washington, DC, to prove he was fit for duty. And I can tell you I drove 8\1/2\ hours over the weekend--that same route. So that's a long way.

After petitioning the Secretary of War, Young was reinstated and promoted to full colonel, becoming the first African American to reach his rank by World War II. In addition to a distinguished military career, Colonel Young was also a professor of military science at Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio, and the first African American named as superintendent of a national park. Because of his immeasurable contributions Colonel Young has made to not only military history, but our American history, it's necessary we recognize his achievements by passing this legislation to determine if his home can be designated as a unit of the National Park Service.

I would like to thank Representative Clay from Missouri for his help also on the bill. Again, I support both these bills. I thank the gentlewoman from Wyoming for yielding, and I strongly support, again,

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4686) to authorize the Secretary of Interior to study the suitability and feasibility of designating prehistoric, historic, and limestone forest sites on Rota, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, as a unit of the National Park System, as amended.

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. 4686, introduced by Congressman Sablan, directs the National Park Service to study the cultural and natural resources of the island of Rota in

the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The study will determine if those resources are suitable and feasible for addition to the National Park System.

Mr. Speaker, the NPS has already done a preliminary survey of the island and found some wonderful cultural resources and important natural features. The study authorized by H.R. 4686 will allow for a more complete examination of these resources and, just as importantly, provide for full public participation as the agency considers whether to recommend establishment of a park on Rota.

Mr. Speaker, I commend Congressman Sablan for his diligence in pursuing this matter, and I urge the House to support H.R. 4686.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from the CNMI, Congressman Sablan.

I again urge the Members of Congress to support the bill.

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.