Date: 2000-05-10
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman. I thank all of the Members who have participated in this general debate. I think what is evolving is a picture of maybe legislation that speaks to the best of this Congress. The gentleman from Alaska has said it. a number of other people have talked about it in terms of conservation. this is about the conservation of -our fish and wildlife. of our wild areas in this country. of open space in our suburban communities. of farmland. Interestingly. this also takes care of some of the values that we have heard about on this floor now for a number of years. Remember the discussion about devolution. The fact of the matter is. in title 3 of this legislation. the State and local agencies has spent that money. The PittmanRobertson money is spent by State and local agencies. The State side PittmanRobertson is spent by State and local agencies. The UPARR is spent by cities and counties. Coastal impact is by States. cities. and counties. The farmland PittmanRobertson is by States and local. The fact of the matter is what this bill is about is giving local communities the resources and the ability to deal with the problems they confront because of the tremendous growth in this country. In my area and the area of the gentleman from California . we have cities that are springing up in dramatic rates. and they are crowding up against farmland. Farmers who want to continue to farm want to keep their orchards. want to keep grazing cattle. Maybe now we can allow them to stay in business if the local cities and counties and organizations want to provide them PittmanRobertson for the easements to do that. the development rights so they can continue to farm. they can continue their orchards. they can continue their cattle. That is what this legislation is about. It is about the great heritage of this country. People from all over the world. people from all over the world come to see the great assets. the environmental assets. the Grand Canyons. the Tetons. the Everglades. Glacier National Park. the shorelines in California and in New York and Long Island. These are great attractions. but they are under pressure. and legislation is designed to deal with that. The vast amount of this PittmanRobertson is to empower communities and local organizations to improve the quality of life for their citizens. We should support this legislation. It is a bipartisan effort in the biggest sense of the word. When one looks at the various viewpoints of the Members who are supporting this legislation. when one looks at our history. when one looks at our ideology. the fact that we can come together and understand how to do this right. how to enhance the protections for private property. how to enhance the roles for local government. how. to enhance the roles for private organization to participate where the Federal Government just irritates people. but local organizations and community groups are able to talk to those individuals about the futures of those communities. So I would hope that Members would support this legislation. Again. I want to thank all of the Members who participated in this debate on both sides. Mr. Chairman. I rise in strong support of a carefully crafted. bipartisan. consensus bill that will redeem Americas promise to protect its public lands. coastlines. marine and wildlife resources and recreation opportunities for generations to come. CARA is. without question. the most important resource protection and management bill to come before the Congress in a generation. I salute the chairman of the Resources Committee. DON YOUNG. for his leadership and his fortitude in developing this legislation. often in the face of fierceand unjustifiedcriticism within his own party and from traditional supporters. This is not just an "environmental" bill. it is a bill that has earned the cosponsorship of 316 Members of the House. 50 Govemors. and scores of State and local legislatures. and the enthusiastic backing of a national grassroots coalition that encompasses the Conference of Mayors. the National Governors Association. the Western Governors Association. the National Association of Counties. National League of Cities. and the Environmental Council of the States. In short. everyone from the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association to the American Canoe Association. American Farmland Trust. Americans for Our Heritage and Recreation. the National Association for African American Heritage -Preservation. the National Soccer Coaches Association. the RailstoTrails Conservancy. police organizations. and wildlife and hunting groups. The list of endorsements. in fact. fills volumes. Those diverse- interests do not often agree on a piece of legislation. For that matter. DON YOUNG and I do not often agree on legislation. But we agree on the urgency of the CARA bill. And here is why. Time is running out for many of Americas resources. Whether farmland or national parks. our coasts or our recreational sites. our wildlife or marine creatureswe simply have not accorded them the priority they deserve or that the American people support. In polls conducted by the respected Frank Luntz firm. -majorities of 80 to 90 percent support full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund and other resource prioritiesEast. West. North. and South. conservatiVe and liberal alike. That support is reflected in the broad endorsement of this bill in the national press. Here are just a few recent examples: Congress has habitually reneged on fully appropriating the money. though it has long been intended for environmental concerns.Atlanta Constitution. May 9. 2000. Reclaim this opportunity to enhance the nations quality of life. It is past time for Washington to live up to the bargain with the American peopleand their natural resourcesthat Congress made in 1964. The MillerYoung bill would do just that. The House should accept no substitutes or weakening amendments. A deal is a dealand the Land and Water Conservation Fund is a particularly good one.-San Francisco Chronicle. May 8. 2000. The Conservation and Reinvestment Act ... would benefit Americans ranging from soccer players to farmers threatened by development.-USA Today. May 8. 2000. A bill that could dramatically strengthen the protection of Americas natural resources.-New York Times. January 10. 2000. CARA will "dramatically increase federal spending on outdoorrecreation facilities and safeguarding the environment.-Christian Science Monitor. May 9. 2000. Additional editorials have appeared just this week across the countrythe Atlanta Constitution. the Oregonian. the San Jose Mercury. the Providence Journal. and the Mobile Registerendorsing this historic legislation. We know our parks are under development pressure. our afterschool recreational programs insufficient. our wildlife stressed. our coasts in peril: the American people want Congress to act. and act decisively. But Congress has failed to act. and the cost of that failure is the degraded heritage we might pass on to future generations of Americans if we do not pass CARA. That is a price too high to pay. Thirty six years ago. the Congress promised the American people that we would share the revenues generated from offshore oil development with the resources onshore. We created the Land and Water Conservation Fund. and we promised it $900 million a year from OCS revenues. But we reneged on that promise and instead of investment. we have a $13 bil--lion deficit in the LWCF account. The OCS revenues continue to roll in. but they bypass our resources. and they betray the promise. CARA gives this Congress the opportunity. on a rare bipartisan basis. to honor the pledge made over three decades ago. Is it expensive? Yes. But not as expensive as losing the land. water. recreation. wildlife and coastal resources of our nation which will be permanently and irreparably lost if CARA is not enacted. If you merely took the $13 billion LWCF was promised by the Congress but never received. adjust for inflation and interest. the debt due our resources is far more than what CARA proposes to expend. Our goal is. to provide that money. with certainty.- so that federal. state and local planners. together with private citizens. foundations and grassroots organizations. can make those investments without fear for the secondclass treatment we have devoted to our resources in recent years. And I would add: we do not allocate this money by raising or by charging fees to those who use these parks and other public resources. The money comes from where it has always been intended to come from: offshore development. Now. as Chairman YOUNG has noted. this bill was very carefully constructed by a bipartisan team to reflect a balanced program. No one got everything they wanted. and we remained united in the Resources Committee against those who sought to upset that careful balance. As a result. the bill before you today reflects a measured. but decisive. initiative that deserves the support of the House.The managers substitute that Chairman YOUNG will offer.on behalf of the bill authors makes a number of changes to the bill as passed by the Resources Committee. many of them technical in nature. that were discussed with the Interior Department and other portions of the Executive Branch. We also agreed to delete a section that placed this bill "off budget." In addition. we have successfully developed an amendment with Congressmen BOEHLERT. MARKEY. and PALLONE that remedies some remaining concerns about incentive for offshore oil development. uses of title I impact funds. and authorizes a competitive grant program to address multistate conservation concerns. I appreciate the hard work of those Members in resolving these issues satisfactorily. and am grateful for their support for the bill. It is my hope that the bill will be approved by the House as supported by the bipartisan coalition that crafted this compromise and by hundreds of organizations located in every congressional district in the nation. This surely is. as the League of Conservation Voters recently stated. "arguably the most important piece of environmental legislation this session of Congress." It enjoys massive support in virtually every Congressional district in the Nation. Your constituents want this bill passed. but they want more than just your vote on final passage. There are going -to be many efforts to amend this bill. Some are sincere efforts to improve the legislation. some are "poison pills" designed to destroy it. While I could support some of these amendments. I am not going to do so if it fractures the massive coalition inside the Congress and across this country that has labored -and sweated and battled for years to get this bill passed. This bill is more important than any amendment. and some of these amendments. make no mistake. are designed to destroy the bill or make it completely ineffectual. So I ask my colleagues today to honor the years of work. the hundreds of thousands of hours of effort that have gone into the careful crafting of this legislation. and oppose amendments. Trust your constituents on this one. Resist the rhetoric. Redeem the promise. And pass CARA--clean. effective. and by a huge margin. Mr. Chairman. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alaska for purposes of control.