Mr. President, I know my colleague from New Mexico will be here in a few minutes and wishes to make a statement in support of the legislation that is before us now. I will start by making my own statement, a general statement about it. I…
Mr. President, I know my colleague from New Mexico will be here in a few minutes and wishes to make a statement in support of the legislation that is before us now. I will start by making my own statement, a general statement about it. I know Senator Wyden also is here on the Senate floor and wishes to speak on this issue and on this legislation. I know, of course, Senator Coburn is also very nearby and wishes to make a statement as well.
The Senate will consider at this time S. 2739. It is a collection of over 60 noncontroversial bills that have been reported from the Energy and Natural Resources Committee dealing with various public land, national park, water, and territorial issues.
Let me start by thanking Senator Reid, our majority leader, for making it possible for us to proceed with this bill at this time. This has been a priority of his for several months now, to get this legislation before the Senate. He deserves great credit for doing that.
All of the individual bills included in S. 2739 have been passed by the House of Representatives and virtually all of the bills--or their Senate companion measures--have also been favorably reported by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The committee votes on reporting these bills have been unanimous.
Typically, these bills would be considered individually and passed under a unanimous consent agreement. Unfortunately, as most Senators are aware, it has become virtually impossible to get unanimous consent to pass anything this year. So despite the fact these bills generally deal with State-specific issues and have the strong support of the affected congressional delegation, and despite the fact that these bills are noncontroversial--having passed the House of Representatives and having been reported by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee with overwhelming bipartisan support--we have not been able to get them cleared.
In an attempt to move these bills forward, last month I introduced S. 2739, which simply incorporates every bill our committee has reported that has also been passed by the House of Representatives. The package includes roughly an equal mix of Democratic-sponsored bills, Republican-sponsored bills, and bills with bipartisan sponsors. As I have already noted, since these bills have been reported out of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee by unanimous votes, there really are not any outstanding issues in dispute. Many of the individual bills that are included in this package have been on the Senate calendar for several months; in fact several were reported by our committee and have been pending on the calendar since January of last year--not January of 2008 but January of 2007. A number of the bills have been approved by the Senate--by unanimous consent, I might add--in previous Congresses, in some cases in several previous Congresses.
While the individual bills in this package may not be controversial, they are nonetheless very important to the individual sponsors, and the Senate has an obligation to try and pass these bills. I would like to take a few minutes to briefly identify some of the provisions included within S. 2739.
The bills included within S. 2739 encompass lands and activities in over 30 States and the District of Columbia. The first provision in the package is Senator Murray's and Senator Cantwell's proposal to designate the 106,000-acre Wild Sky wilderness in Washington State, which the Senate has passed in each of the last three previous Congresses. The Wild Sky wilderness is an important addition to the National Wilderness Preservation, and has strong local and national support.
Another provision in the bill includes language sponsored by Senators Wyden and Akaka to give the National Park Service important new authority to enter into cooperative agreements to protect threatened natural resources in national parks.
S. 2739 also includes additions to the Minidoka National Monument in Idaho and Washington State, the Carl Sandburg National Historic Site in North Carolina, and the Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts, and the bill provides the National Park Service with important new authorities at Acadia National Park in Maine and Denali National Park in Alaska.
It authorizes studies of potential new parks in Missouri, Texas, Arkansas, California, Arizona, and Massachusetts to assess whether any would be appropriate for addition to the National Park System, and it establishes commissions to commemorate significant anniversaries of the Hudson and Champlain expeditions in what are now the northeastern United States.
S. 2739 would designate two new Outstanding Natural Areas to be managed by the Bureau of Land Management: the Piedras Blancas Historic Light Station in California, and the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse in Florida. It also allows for BLM land in Nevada to be transferred for use by the Nevada National Guard.
The package includes a new addition to the Wild and Scenic River System in Connecticut, and a new addition to the National Trails System, the ``Star-Spangled Banner'' National Historic Trail in Virginia and Maryland.
The bill includes authorizations related to new commemorative works in the District of Columbia, including one honoring President Eisenhower, and establishes a commission to study the potential creation of a National Museum of the American Latino, here in Washington.
S. 2739 would establish three new National Heritage Areas: the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area in Illinois; the Niagara Falls National Heritage Area in New York, and the multi-State Journey Through Hallowed Ground National Heritage Area in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, and it authorizes studies of potential new heritage areas in Oregon and Kentucky. It would also increase the authorization ceiling for several existing heritage areas.
This bill will help address the water resource challenges facing many regions of the country. There are 16 provisions in the bill affecting States west-wide, including sections that will promote partnerships between the Federal Government, States, and local entities in the area of water, including paying for security costs at Bureau of Reclamation facilities; ensure a better understanding of groundwater resources; facilitate a feasibility study of serious proposals to address water shortages and avoid litigation; transfer Federal property to local ownership and eliminate Federal restrictions impeding water conservation projects; promote water recycling activities; and authorize Federal participation in the Platte River Endangered Species Recovery Program, which is strongly supported in Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming.
Given the critical nature of many of these items, it's important that these water-related authorities be enacted as soon as possible.
S. 2379 also reauthorizes two energy programs at the Department of Energy. One clarifies the Secretary of Energy's authority to make grants to advanced energy efficiency technology transfer centers under the Energy Policy Act of2005, and the other reauthorizes the Steel and Aluminum Energy Conservation and Technology Competitiveness Act of 1988.
The package contains two important measures related to the territories. The first involves the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands--CNMI--to respond to longstanding Federal concerns regarding immigration, labor, and law enforcement--concerns that are greatly heightened following the September 11 attacks. This bill culminates 11 years of congressional and executive branch efforts to extend the U.S. immigration laws to the CNMI including the establishment of Federal border control as anticipated by the 1976 covenant agreement between the CNMI and the United States. The bill also includes special provisions to meet the special needs of the islands' economy. The citizens of the CNMI have been U.S. citizens and members of the U.S. family for over 20 years, but they have been unable to participate in
American democracy as have the other territories. S. 2793 rectifies this by authorizing the election of a Delegate from the CNMI to the House of Representatives, a necessary step if we are to keep faith with our Nation's founding principle of representative government.
The final title of S. 2739 would make numerous amendments to the Compacts of Free Association between the United States and the Pacific island nations of the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau.
As lengthy as that summary of the provisions in S. 2739 was, it reflects only a portion of the bills that have been considered in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee this Congress. This package reflects only a first step of Energy Committee bills that need to be considered this year. As soon as S. 2739 is passed, I will assemble a second package, with a similar number of bills, containing legislation that has been approved by our committee, but which has not yet come over from the other body. Like this package, the second bill will be a wide-ranging collection of authorizing measures.
But regardless of whether the individual items in that package are large or small, all these bills will have been reported by our committee after a full public process. I know many Senators who have bills that will be, in fact, in that second package rather than in this first package and are eager for us to move ahead. I would point out the New Mexico-specific bills I have sponsored will be in that second package; they are not in the legislation before us today. So I share in that desire to move expeditiously, and I look forward to working with Senator Domenici and the majority leader and, of course, the Republican Leader as well to try to get that second package ready for floor consideration as soon as possible.
Senate rule XLIV requires the chairman of the committee of jurisdiction to certify that each Congressionally directed spending item in any bill coming before the Senate has been identified and disclosed on a publicly accessible Congressional Web site. The rule defines ``congressionally directed spending items'' as spending items ``included primarily at the request of a Senator.''
Although I included none of the House-passed bills in S. 2739, primarily at the request of a Senator, in the interests of full disclosure I have provided a list of all spending authorizations for specific amounts targeted to specific localities contained in S. 2739, along with the name of the sponsor of the Senate companion of the House-passed bill.
This list has been made available on the Web site of the Committee of Energy and Natural Resources since March 11 and was previously printed in the Congressional Record on March 11, at page S. 1869.
In addition, I ask unanimous consent that the list, along with my letter to the Majority Leader accompanying the list, be printed in the Record for the information of all Senators.
While I have previously tried to describe all the provisions in the package, I believe the individual sponsors can better describe the merits of some of their specific provisions. I am sure many of them will want to do so.
Passage of S. 2739 will not only allow us to send this to the House and then to the President, it will also allow us to move forward and address the many legislative pending requests within our Energy and Natural Resources Committee that have been awaiting consideration behind this bill.
I think it is important to remember all the individual provisions included in the package were previously approved by the House of Representatives. I know in a few minutes the Senate will also be considering four amendments that have not been approved either in the House or by our Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
To ensure that we do not jeopardize the enactment of S. 2739, I will be opposing all those amendments, and I will urge my colleagues to do so as well, so we can finally pass this bill in a form the House can quickly pass and send to the President for his signature.
As I indicated before, I know Senator Domenici wishes to make a statement.
I yield the floor.
Mr. President, let me respond on this particular amendment that the Senator from Oklahoma has presented or called up for consideration.
The amendment does require the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to post an annual report on the Internet that details quite a few different things. First, how much land is ``within the jurisdiction of the United States;'' second, how much of that land is owned by the Federal Government, both in total and on a State-by-State basis; third, a description of how much it costs to maintain all lands, buildings, and structures on an agency-by-agency basis; fourth, extensive information on the number of unused and vacant assets and the value of operating costs for each such vacant asset; fifth, the estimated maintenance backlog of each Federal agency, presumably on these various assets.
The amendment does not just apply to national parks and national forests and reclamation projects and public domain lands which, of course, our committee would have jurisdiction of, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, but also the national wildlife refuges, Indian trust lands, GSA properties, post offices, military bases and facilities, veterans hospitals. And those, of course, are under the jurisdiction of other committees I do not serve on.
To give a sense of the breadth of the amendment, the Office of Management and Budget would have to provide detailed information each year on approximately 1.2 billion real property assets worldwide and over 636 million acres of land.
There is no provision in the amendment to exempt any sensitive information that the Department of Defense might wish to withhold or the Department of Energy or the CIA or any other agency that has a national security responsibility.
While there is certainly room for improvement in Federal property management--and in that regard I agree with the Senator from Oklahoma-- I do not believe we are ready to act on this amendment at this time or adopt this amendment. I believe compliance with the amendment would be very burdensome, time consuming, and expensive, and, of course, it is a responsibility that would have to be updated each year.
My own view is, this amendment, if proposed as a freestanding bill, would not be referred to our committee, not the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. I believe it would be referred to the Homeland Security Committee because they have Government-wide responsibility. We have no idea how much cost would be involved to each agency in compiling this information for the Office of Management and Budget. I assume it would be a substantial cost, and it is not one that I think we should act upon with this bill without any idea of that cost.
So my own preference, frankly, would be that if the Senator wishes to have a report such as this developed, the appropriate way to proceed would be to go to the chairman and ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, ask for a hearing on this proposal, get that committee to look seriously at what can be done to develop this kind of report, what cost is involved in developing this kind of report, whether there are needs that national security would require for putting some exemptions into this report so that we would not be putting on the Internet information that some of our national-security- related agencies would not want posted on the Internet. That would be the approach I would urge on my colleague.
So for all of those reasons, I oppose the amendment and urge my colleagues to oppose it when it comes to a vote.
Mr. President, I believe the Senator from Oklahoma has three additional amendments he wants to present. I believe he has 30 minutes on his side and I have less than 15 on our side. I will defer to him to go ahead, and then I will have a few minutes to respond.
Mr. President, let me speak briefly in opposition to this amendment and explain my understanding of it. This amendment prohibits the three agencies, the Department of Interior, Department of Energy, and the Forest Service, from assuming control--that is the phrasing in the amendment--over any parcel of land except through a voluntary exchange, unless the citizens of the political subdivision in which the parcel is located approve the assumption of control by referendum. Even if the assumption of control by the agency is approved by a referendum, that approval terminates at the end of 10 years, unless there is another referendum that extends it beyond 10 years.
It seems likely to me that the amendment would affect more than just the acquisition of fee title to land. It appears to include the interests in lands, such as rights of way, easements, possibly water rights, taking lands into trust for Indian tribes, and perhaps even friendly condemnations for public purposes.
As I read the amendment, since the only exception is for voluntary exchanges of property, I would think the sale of property--if one of these agencies wants to buy the land and a private landowner wants to sell the land to the agency, it would have to be approved by referendum. The amendment would give counties and communities, political subdivisions, veto authority over any Federal land ownership by these three agencies. I think it would frustrate congressional efforts to purchase or protect lands to make it virtually impossible to provide for any long-term Federal management or protection, such as is attempted in our national parks and monuments, wildlife refuges, historic sites, and wilderness areas. The amendment would adversely impact much more than land designated for conservation purposes. It would also impact Bureau of Reclamation dams, reservoirs, energy pipelines, and DOE facilities.
I think the concept of having to do another referendum every 10 years--I don't know how that would work, frankly. I don't know what would happen if you lose. Suppose the Federal Government goes ahead and acquires land through whatever means for a reservoir. At the end of the 10 years, there has to be another referendum on whether the Federal Government should maintain that land for that reservoir. If the referendum fails, I don't know what we would do with that reservoir at that point. There is not much of a private market for reservoirs. I don't know what action the Government would be expected to take at that point.
For a variety of reasons, I do not think this is a workable amendment, and it is one I urge my colleagues to oppose.
Mr. President, let me speak in opposition to this amendment as well.
This amendment would establish new restrictions for the three national heritage areas that are designated in this bill. It would prohibit the Secretary of the Interior from approving a management plan for a heritage area unless the local coordinating entity, which is usually a nonprofit group that is promoting tourism in this heritage area and developing the management plan, has provided written notification to each individual residing or owning property there.
The amendment also prohibits employees of the National Park Service or the local coordinating entity, usually the nonprofit group, from entering any private property within the heritage area without the written consent of the property owner.
The amendment, in my view, fails to understand what the designation of a heritage area means. Let me read some boilerplate language we put in every one of these national heritage area bills. It says in the bill, and we have this three times in this legislation because there are three heritage areas: Nothing in the subtitle abridges the rights of any property owner, including the right to refrain from participating in any plan, project, program or activity conducted within the heritage area. Nothing in the subtitle requires any property owner to permit public access to the land. Nothing in the title alters any duly adopted land use regulation. Nothing in the title authorizes or implies the reservation or appropriation of any water or water rights. Nothing in the title creates any liability, affects any liability under any other law of any private property owner with respect to any person injured on private property.
There is substantial confusion, I believe, about the idea that there is some great decrement of private property rights by the designation of these heritage areas.
The prohibition against employees of the National Park Service or coordinating entity from being able to enter private property without written permission of the landowner does not make sense, in my opinion. Heritage areas do not involve acquisition of Federal land. The amendment applies to any private land within large areas of the State. We have one in northern New Mexico which I was urged to try to establish--and we were able to establish it--by people who wanted to
promote tourism in northern New Mexico.
Under this language, a member of the Park Service or the coordinating entity would not be able to go to a mall or a restaurant or go to any other private property in northern New Mexico in a three-county area without written consent of the landowner.
In my view, the amendment should be defeated, and I urge my colleagues to vote against it when the time comes.
Mr. President, before we leave this amendment, I wish to make one more point. I read the language that is in the bill in each of these heritage area provisions that says there is nothing that prohibits or restricts the right of the landowner to deny access to his or her private property. That is the case under State property law in every State in the Union.
If I own a piece of property, if I am a private landowner and I don't want people coming on the land, I have the right to deny them access on my land. That includes Federal officials, surveyors, anybody I want to deny the right to come on my land. There is nothing in our legislation that in any way changes that.
Mr. President, let me speak briefly on this amendment and in opposition to this amendment as well.
The amendment provides 1 percent of all amounts made available to the Secretary of the Interior to carry out the various provisions of the legislation--that is to the 60-some odd bills that are included here-- beginning in 2008 and each fiscal year thereafter, be made available to the Director of the Park Service to dispose of assets described in the candidate asset disposition list. This is a list of structures the Park Service intends to demolish or to dispose of.
I think the description the Senator from Oklahoma made contemplated the sale of property. The truth is this is a list the Park Service keeps of buildings they no longer want to maintain. They wish to dispose of these, in the sense of destroying them, or tearing them down.
The amendment is essentially a tax on future appropriations for all of the programs in this package to pay for a specific asset disposal program of one agency within the Department of the Interior. Many of the programs authorized in this legislation have nothing to do with the National Park Service. It makes no sense, in my view, to reduce amounts appropriated for various unrelated programs and to other agencies, especially when the Park Service has never identified funding of its asset disposal program as a problem.
Each year we get a budget from the Department of Interior. They have never requested specific funds for this purpose. Instead, they use their regular construction funding to destroy property, to destroy these buildings when they determine that is a priority for them.
The amendment, of course, in my view also impinges upon the jurisdiction of the Appropriations Committee. I am not on the committee, my colleague Senator Domenici is, but we are essentially saying here that all future appropriations that relate to bills that are part of this legislation shall be taxed by 1 percent for this other purpose. That seems to me an unusual way for the Congress to begin undermining, through an authorizing bill, the appropriations that otherwise should be made by the Congress.
I urge my colleagues to oppose the legislation.
Mr. President, 2 minutes is remaining?
I gather that is in our total hour?
I am glad to yield that to my colleague.
Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on each of the amendments of the Senator from Oklahoma, if that is appropriate.
Mr. President, we have just now concluded the debate on these amendments. I would yield back the time unless the Senator from Oklahoma wishes to speak.
Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Madam President, I know the Senator from Washington, Mrs. Murray, is waiting to speak, and I will not take much time except to say Senator Domenici and I obviously had tremendously good help from our staffs. They worked long and hard to put this legislation together and get it into a form where it could be considered by the Senate.
We will seek time later this afternoon to elaborate as to the individual members of our staffs who participated and to thank them for their good work.
I will yield the floor and allow Senator Murray and Senator Cantwell to speak as provided in the unanimous consent agreement.