Great Dismal Swamp National Heritage Area Act

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1154) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study to assess the suitability and feasibility of designating certain land as the Great Dismal Swamp National Heritage Area, 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 and include extraneous material on the measure under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1154, the Great Dismal Swamp National Heritage Area Act, introduced by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. McEachin), my Natural Resources Committee colleague.

This bill would direct the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a study assessing the suitability and the feasibility of designating the Great Dismal Swamp in the States of Virginia and North Carolina as a national heritage area.

The Great Dismal Swamp is an area of great historical, cultural, and environmental importance, and has been home to indigenous people since time immemorial. The swamp includes the ancestral lands of the Nansemond Indian Nation and the historic lands of the Haliwa-Saponi and Meherrin tribes.

The swamp was also one of the only known water-based stops on the Underground Railroad and home to a thriving community descending from early colonial free people of color whose families resisted American slavery by finding refuge within the swamp.

In 1974 the swamp was designated as a national wildlife refuge due to its ecological significance, and today it holds the largest intact remnant of a vast forest that once covered more than a million acres.

Designating the Great Dismal Swamp as a national heritage area will help share the often untold stories of some of our Nation's underrepresented communities.

From the indigenous communities who first called the swamp home to the enslaved African Americans who endured the swamp's hardships in their fight for freedom, these are stories worth sharing with current and future generations.

I would like to thank my friend and colleague, Representative McEachin, for championing this important legislation. I urge all my colleagues to support this bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. I am glad that my colleague's thoughts came through the swamp, and I urge my colleagues to support the legislation.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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

H.R. 1154, offered by Congressman McEachin, requires the Secretary of the Interior to assess the suitability and feasibility of designating a national heritage area comprised of cities and counties in Virginia and counties in North Carolina to be known as the Great Dismal Swamp National Heritage Area.

While many think of Washington, D.C. as a great dismal swamp, it is actually a marshy region on the coastal plain of southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina that stretches roughly 37 miles north to south and covers an area approximately 750 square miles. The Great Dismal Swamp has a long history of Native American inhabitants and was a known route and destination for freedom seekers.

This measure already passed the House as an amendment to H.R. 803, the Protecting America's Wilderness and Public Lands Act earlier this Congress. I did not support the measure then because it had not gone through regular order and was being added to a package that created 1.5 million acres of new wilderness. You could say this measure was bogged down here in the swamp.

While this is not how the process should work, I am happy that this bill has now gone through regular order, and I would, therefore, urge adoption of the measure.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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