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Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, most certainly I hope the cameras can get a great shot of this beautiful poster. It says: Parks and recreation: The benefits are endless. This is a picture of a Little League team. I do not exactly know from which State they hail, but it is from one of our great States. This is a team; and you can tell they are having a lot of fun.
To me and many of us who are working on a very important environmental bill, this poster represents something that is absolutely essential for our country today and is something that has been a joy to work on in this Congress and something on which we are making such progress.
Besides a great education for kids, we also have to give them a place to grow up and ball teams to belong to. It builds character and it teaches them how to work together and how to be productive.
Really, life is a lot about teamwork. We learn that in the Senate. We learn it in classrooms. We also learn it on ball fields all over this great country and around the world.
I want to take a moment, if I can, to say a couple words about a bill introduced last night by a group of us. I thank Senators TRENT LOTT, FRANK MURKOWSKI, JOHN BREAUX, and DIANNE FEINSTEIN for being cosponsors. Senator EVAN BAYH indicated to me a few minutes ago he is anxious to join with us; and also Senator CAMPBELL mentioned his interest. I am sure there will be many who support us as the word gets out about this particular bill. It is S. 2123 that was filed. It is the exact version of a bill that was worked out in a great compromise in the House about the ways we should reinvest our oil and gas revenues to provide for the expansion and full funding of our land, water, and conservation funds, which would fund thousands of opportunities such as this for the children I just mentioned.
It would fund significantly our wildlife conservation programs in this country, not necessarily dictated from Washington but actually decisions made at the State and local levels where, with regard to game and nongame species, special methods can be used; one size doesn't fit all.
Significant to my State of Louisiana as a producing State, this particular bill would provide some significant resources to address the great coastal needs of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, but also of New Jersey, California, Washington, and all of our coastal States, including our Great Lakes States. Whether we drill or not--and there are no incentives for drilling--it will be a great resource to help restore our coastlines, help stop the erosion, and help preserve wetlands in this Nation and our State of Louisiana, which represents over 60 percent of the coastal wetlands in the United States, and 40 percent of the commercial fisheries, the habitat of which rests in these wetlands. So it is a tremendous treasure.
This bill was introduced along with others we have before our Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. I thank the growing number of Senators who have stepped up to the plate to try to help us pass what is arguably the most important conservation and environmental bill in the last 100 years.
To my friends who are concerned about more acquisition of
Federal land, I will share a few thoughts from DON YOUNG, who has been the leader on the House committee, who has been a champion of private property rights, a champion of the outdoors. They joked earlier today that he carries a knife. I guess it is OK in the House because he has one. If worse comes to worst, he may use it to help get this bill passed. I think that is probably going too far. But trust me, he is an outdoorsman from Alaska; he knows about private property rights.
He says the bill we are debating, S. 25, and also this new bill, S. 2123, which reflects the compromise he and Congressman MILLER from California worked out, would actually improve the position of Western States that are concerned that perhaps this bill gives even more money to purchase land because, in fact, any administration can do that, and right now some administrations have done it without much oversight from Congress.
This bill provides the proper partnership and balance between the administration and Congress. This bill gives the appropriators and the authorizing committee the authority and encourages them to actually make the decisions about what lands will be purchased. In addition, what I think is so right about what Chairman DON YOUNG says, is that our environmental efforts need to be about much more than just acquiring more land; we have to take care of the land we already own. I think the Chair would agree with that. That is what the bill does.
I reach out to my colleagues from Western States, many of whom have supported this effort, many of whom have other concerns and have hesitated so far with their endorsement, to ask them to really look at western values within the Conservation and Reinvestment Act piece that is being circulated and really look at what an improvement this bill offers over the current status quo.
My last point is actually a word to the White House and to the President,
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I thank him for laying down a mark on lands legacy but urge him to consider that this piece of legislation is permanent in nature. It is broader than the vision he has outlined. And it is an improvement. It brings in the East and the West, the North and the South. It helps urban areas and rural areas because we have added urban parks and historic preservation. There have been some great improvements demonstrated through the development of this piece of legislation.
I thank him for his great leadership, acknowledge the work of many people in the White House, but urge them to embrace the concept that is now supported by over 300 Members in the House. We have a growing number of Members in the Senate to pass this bill now.
Some people think we can't afford it. If we can't afford to take $2 billion, which our bill is calling for, out of arguably a $3 trillion surplus--if you want to take Social Security completely off the plate, which I want to do, and give very conservative estimates, it leaves us with about $800 billion to allocate. We can do it through some tax cuts, which I support, reasonable and targeted. We can do strategic investments in education. But
there is one investment I know, besides education, the American people want us to make. That is preserving land that is lost every hour and every minute, preserving parks for these children, preserving opportunities to hunt and fish, to take your grandchildren to the pond outside of your farm or down the road or across the State line to spend a weekend in the woods.
I am positive people in Louisiana and all over America want us to act now. Ten years is too late. Next year is too late. My question is, if we can't afford to take this money now, which in my opinion should not be going into the Federal Treasury because it is taxes from a resource that is depleting--we should not be using it in our operating expenses anyway because one day, probably in my lifetime, these oil and gas wells will be dried up--why do we not take this opportunity in the dawn of this new century to take some of this money and give it back to our kids and our grandkids in ways that are responsible and meaningful and for something that is permanent.
In conclusion, I know many people will thank us for passing this bill, but the most important group will be our grandchildren. We will be proud that we did it.
I look forward to working with all of my colleagues, Republican and Democrat, to get this bill out of committee, passed on the floor, and be there for the signing when the President will enthusiastically embrace what we have done to improve his lands legacy approach to provide security for Western Senators, to provide urban help to our urban areas, and to do it in a way that is very fair to all parts of the country.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to print a document in the RECORD entitled ``Western Values Within the Conservation and Reinvestment Act of 1999.''
There being no objection, the document was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
Western Values Within the Conservation and Reinvestment Act of 1999 (CARA)
BACKGROUND
For decades, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has made $900 million available for state and federal land acquisition. State acquisitions are driven by a state planning process and states and local governments are responsible for their own plans and receive direct funding (matched 50/50) based upon a formula. Since fiscal year 1995, the states have not received funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
For federal acquisitions, any amount (up to $900 million) may be spent on Federal land acquisition as appropriated through the annual Congressional appropriations process. There are virtually no restrictions with this process and almost $300 million has been historically appropriated to purchase new federal lands. In a recent year, nearly $700 million was used to buy private lands.
HOW DOES CARA CHANGE THIS PROCESS TO PROTECT WESTERN VALUES?
1. By making permanent and dividing (between the state and federal portions) the $900 million within the Land and Water Conservation Fund, we require the federal government to share half of the LWCF funds with the states to be spent on locally selected projects.
2. Each year the Administration must transmit a list to Congress requesting specific approval for each tract of land to be acquired.
3. Congress must specifically approve each project.
4. The Administration must seek to consolidate federal land holdings in states with checkerboard Federal land ownership patterns.
5. The Administration must seek to use exchanges and conservation easements as an alternative to acquisition.
6. The Administration must notify Congress (within the annual request required by CARA) if tracts are identified for acquisition from non-willing sellers.
7. Transactions will be carried out with willing sellers, because CARA prohibits the government from using adverse condemnation to acquire lands--unless specifically authorized by Congress.
8. The Administration must demonstrate, to Congress, its authority to carry out the federal acquisition.
9. 30 days after the submission of the LWCF acquisition request (new CARA requirement), the Congressional representatives, the Governor, and local government official must be notified.
10. 30 days after the submission of the LWCF acquisition request (new CARA requirement), the local public must be notified in a newspaper that is widely distributed to the area in which the proposed acquisition is to take place.
11. Prior to the federal purchase of lands, all actions required under Federal law must be completed.
12. Prior to the federal purchase of lands, a copy of the final NEPA documents must be given to Congress and the Congressional representatives, the Governor, and local government officials must be notified that the environment work is complete and the documents are available.
13. CARA requires just compensation for the taking of private property, as provided within the Constitution.
14. CARA protects State water rights.
15. CARA provides $200 million annually for maintenance.
16. CARA provides up to $200 million in additional funding for PILT and Refuge Revenue Sharing.
17. CARA will provide the necessary funds to reduce the $10 billion backlog of willing sellers stuck within an inholding.
18. Restricts the federal governments regulatory ability over all private lands.
19. CARA prohibits funding for wildlife law enforcement.
20. If revenues for CARA fall, all titles and programs are reduced proportionally.
END