Good Samaritan Search and Recovery Act

I appreciate all of those who have been involved in this piece of legislation, which is very important.

Mr. Speaker, 100 years ago, the National Park Service was established to try and help people enjoy these natural wonders for, indeed, if people are not visiting our national parks, they do not fulfill the measure of their creation. It fills no purpose. Unfortunately, in the last 100 years, it seems like there has been an attitude shift amongst many of those who are involved in our national parks and other wonders that we have, especially in the West, in which people who originally were supposed to be the reason for having these parks have now been placed last.

The horrific example of what happened at Lake Mead in Nevada is a horrible thing to take place. Were it the only example we have of these types of negative things taking place, this legislation would still be well-deserved and well overdue. Unfortunately, it is not. It is just an example of significant issues that keep coming back in which our administration seems to be putting people last and doing things which are not positive and not helpful.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

In Washington State, we have another national park in which there is an open area, almost like a community park within the National Park System, and yet the land manager in Washington decided to cancel a traditional annual church picnic because it would make too much noise for the rest of the national park. They also canceled a youth soccer tournament because it would make too much noise and disturb the rest of the national park.

During our shutdown, whether, indeed, they were told to try to make life miserable or not, they seemed to be able to do that on their own. The effort for the Park Service was to shut down the parking lot at Mount Vernon until someone had to remind them that Mount Vernon is not Federal property, that it is private property. At the same time, they were able to shut down a road in the Smokies to stop a schoolbus from making its rounds to pick up kids and take them to school and back again.

At Yellowstone, an armed guard came upon a busload of seniors to try and escort them off of the Federal property, not allowing them to make any kind of stops, even for restroom breaks. At Lake Mead, at the same time, residents who were living on their private houseboats were escorted off the lake and were told they could not come back. We have in this particular area the Claude Moore farm and the restaurant over on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Even though they were private establishments, the Park Service was doing everything it could to stop people from attending those areas and allowing them to make a success of the particular business.

This doesn't happen to be just in the shutdown period. This was happening well before that time.

In Alaska, on the Yukon-Charley Rivers, a private boater was stopped by the Park Service personnel. They took him over to the shore. He was held at gunpoint and was told that he could not continue on up the river because they said he couldn't continue on up the river. The unfortunate reality is that they didn't have the right to tell him he couldn't go on up the river. They were simply wrong and eventually were replaced in that particular area.

Other agencies of the Federal Government seem to be doing the same thing. We have a Wyoming rancher who did not want to give an easement to the BLM. Instead, he was threatened; they trespassed his property; they followed him and his guests; they photographed what he was doing, including his female guests, who were trying to relieve themselves at the time; they were harassed and punished, and were told they would not have any of his permits renewed if he did not accede to the Federal request.

At Cape Hatteras, the Park Service went into a sue-settlement agreement, which shut down areas that had never been before even though the local people were opposed to that particular effort and even though it had a devastating impact on the economy.

The Forest Service, unfortunately, has done the same thing with ski resorts and, in California, on another ski resort where they closed summer activities unless they renegotiated the water rights of those resorts. Then there are the grazing permits in the West. They refused to, once again, renew the grazing permits unless they were willing to renegotiate their water rights.

All of these are examples which, unfortunately, continue to go on.

What the good Representative from Nevada has presented us is a terrific case in which the Park Service actually disrespected individuals and did not allow them to do what is humanitarianly appropriate. Yet, when they were allowed to go in there and they found these bodies, they could have overcome all of this if they had just cared about people first, but they did not.

With the Keystone pipeline, the Park Service, once again, made a comment that the Keystone pipeline would have a devastating impact on parklands that were adjacent to the Keystone pipeline. Unfortunately, the nearest Federal land--the nearest national parkland--to the Keystone pipeline is 30 miles away. That is some kind of buffer zone we have.

If, indeed, we decided that this agency--the Department of this administration--were to put people first, we would have a much better relationship. Unfortunately, time after time, we see where actually people are being put last and bureaucratic responsibility is taking the place of that. That is simply wrong. This bill is an example of what is happening, and it is one that should be passed. I appreciate that both the majority and the minority realize the significance of passing this piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize my friend and former colleague, Dennis Cardoza. Dennis served as the U.S. Congressman for the 18th Congressional District of California. He has truly led a life dedicated to public service, and his efforts deserve to be commended.

Dennis grew up in Atwater, California where he attended Atwater High School followed by California State University, Stanislaus. He later transferred to the University of Maryland College Park where he earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1982. He was the first member of his family to graduate college. Dennis' first taste of public service came in 1979 when he spent a summer in college interning on Capitol Hill.

After graduation, Dennis returned to the San Joaquin Valley where he ran a successful small business and served as a city councilman for Merced and Atwater. In 1996, he was elected to the California State Assembly where he served as Chairman of the Rules Committee and cofounder of the Moderate Democratic Caucus.

In 2002, Dennis was elected to his first term in Congress. He had many legislative accomplishments that truly made a difference in his district. Dennis was an unwavering advocate for issues impacting Valley residents such as water, agriculture, unemployment, and poverty. Dennis lobbied to bring Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar and Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack to the Central Valley. Their visit influenced the decision by the Department of Agriculture to declare Merced, Stanislaus, and San Joaquin counties as natural disaster areas. Also, Dennis was an active member of the Blue Dog Coalition. He proudly cosponsored H.R. 2166 the ``Fiscal Honesty and Accountability Act of 2009'' to extend Pay-As-You-Go spending through 2014 in order to strengthen Congress' commitment to fiscal responsibility and accountability. In 2007 Dennis joined the House Rules Committee where he assisted the victims of the Valley's home foreclosure crisis by securing language in H.R. 1728, the ``Mortgage Reform and Anti- Predatory Lending Act'', that established a federal database to track foreclosures across the country. In the 110th and 111th Congresses, Dennis served as Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture, which had a prominent role in the formation of the 2007 Farm Bill.

Dennis believes that one of our greatest responsibilities as a society is to leave our nation a better place for our children and grandchildren. Dennis worked diligently to ensure that the University of California's 10th campus would be in Merced, California. In addition, one of Dennis' proudest legislative accomplishments was the language he introduced in the ``Fostering Connections to Success and increasing Adoptions Act'', which ensures that children in the foster care system receive necessary medical attention until the age of 21. Dennis has been an advocate on behalf of children and adoption not just as a legislator but also as a parent, raising two adopted children in addition to his one biological daughter.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing the leadership and public service of Dennis Cardoza. His contributions to the Central Valley, the State of California, and the future generations of this nation ennobled this body of Congress with his presence.

Mr. President, I would like to announce for the information of the Senate and the public that a hearing has been scheduled before Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining. The hearing will be held on Wednesday, July 30, 2014, at 9:30 a.m. in room SD-366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The purpose of the hearing is to receive testimony on the following bills:

S. 1049 and H.R. 2166, to direct the Secretary of the

Interior and Secretary of Agriculture to expedite access to

certain Federal lands under the administrative jurisdiction

of each Secretary for good Samaritan search-and-recovery

missions, and for other purposes;

S. 1437, to provide for the release of the reversionary

interest held by the United States in certain land conveyed

in 1954 by the United States, acting through the Director of

the Bureau of Land Management, to the State of Oregon for the

establishment of the Hermiston Agricultural Research and

Extension Center of Oregon State University in Hermiston,

Oregon;

S. 1554, to direct the heads of Federal public land

management agencies to prepare reports on the availability of

public access and egress to Federal public land for hunting,

fishing, and other recreational purposes, to amend the Land

and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 to provide funding

for recreational public access to Federal land, and for other

purposes;

S. 1605, for the relief of Michael G. Faber;

S. 1640, to facilitate planning, permitting,

administration, implementation, and monitoring of pinyon-

juniper dominated landscape restoration projects within

Lincoln County, Nevada, and for other purposes;

S. 1888 and H.R. 1241, to facilitate a land exchange

involving certain National Forest System land in the Inyo

National Forest, and for other purposes;

S. 2123, to authorize the exchange of certain Federal land

and non-Federal land in the State of Minnesota;

S. 2616, to require the Secretary of the Interior to convey

certain Federal land to Idaho County in the State of Idaho,

and for other purposes;

H.R. 1684, to convey certain property to the State of

Wyoming to consolidate the historic Ranch A, and for other

purposes; and,

H.R. 3008, to provide for the conveyance of a small parcel

of National Forest System land in Los Padres National Forest

in California, and for other purposes.

Because of the limited time available for the hearing, witnesses may testify by invitation only. However, those wishing to submit written testimony for the hearing record should send it to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, United States Senate, 304 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510-6150, or by email to John Assini@energv.senate.gov.

For further information, please contact Meghan Conklin (202)-224-8046 or John Assini (202)-224-9313.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the chairman and the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, as well as the chairman of the subcommittee, the gentleman from Arizona, and the gentleman from Utah for working with me in a bipartisan manner to bring H.R. 2166, the Good Samaritan Search and Recovery Act, to the floor.

H.R. 2166 tears down the bureaucratic roadblocks that are preventing families from receiving closure when their loved ones go missing on Federal land.

This issue was first brought to my attention by the separate, but similarly tragic, cases of Las Vegas taxi driver Keith Goldberg and Air Force Staff Sergeant Antonio Tucker.

Mr. Goldberg and Staff Sergeant Tucker were presumed dead, and their remains were believed to be missing somewhere within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. In both cases, local, experienced search-and- recovery groups volunteered their time and resources to help locate the remains of these missing individuals.

Unfortunately, due to unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles from the Federal Government, the group volunteering to help locate and recover Mr. Goldberg's remains was denied access to Park Service land for over 15 months. The group volunteering to help locate the remains of Staff Sergeant Tucker was denied access for 10 months, needlessly delaying the closure both families deserved.

These stories are heart-wrenching, these actions are unacceptable, and they must change. Once these bureaucratic hurdles were finally cleared and these Good Samaritan search-and-recovery groups were allowed access to Park Service land, Mr. Goldberg's remains were recovered in less than 2 hours, and the remains of Staff Sergeant Tucker were recovered in less than 2 days.

As a former member of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's Search and Rescue Team, I introduced this bill because unnecessary red tape simply must not continue to get in the way of providing closure for families faced with tragic circumstances.

After a hearing, this bill passed out of the House Natural Resources Committee with a unanimous vote, showing real bipartisan support for the measure, so I ask my colleagues to pass this bill so that other families won't have to needlessly suffer the way the families of Keith Goldberg and Antonio Tucker did.

Again, I want to thank the chairmen and the ranking members of the full committee and of the subcommittee for working diligently to bring this bill to the floor. I urge its passage.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2166) to direct the Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Agriculture to expedite access to certain Federal lands under the administrative jurisdiction of each Secretary for good Samaritan search-and-recovery missions, and for other purposes.

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

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

In the Natural Resources Committee, we heard testimony from Jodi Goldberg, who shared a story about the search for her brother Keith, who had been murdered and whose body was presumed to be in the vicinity of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

A nonprofit search-and-rescue team attempted to search within the recreation area but was delayed by the National Park Service for over a year. By the time the search-and-recovery team was allowed access to search for Mr. Goldberg's remains, they were found in a matter of hours.

The bureaucratic delays and roadblocks constructed by the National Park Service are at best unnecessary. Much worse than that, they have caused undue suffering to families who simply want to look for their loved ones.

This bipartisan bill makes perfect sense. The Good Samaritan Search and Recovery Act, sponsored by Congressman Joe Heck, would require the Federal land management agencies to quickly issue permits to qualify search-and-recovery groups. This would also eliminate the requirement to obtain costly insurance provided they waive liability against the Federal Government.

I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Nevada, Dr. Heck, the sponsor of the bill.

I thank the gentleman from Arizona.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Bishop), the chairman of the subcommittee.

I yield the gentleman an additional 2 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, having completed our presentation and all of our speakers, I urge the adoption of the bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.