Taxpayer First Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I came in at the end of my friend from Louisiana's discussion. I have great respect for Mr. Graves and I have great respect for his concern, but, very frankly, the things he talks about have been pending in the United States Senate for 60 days untended.

The leader of the Senate said the States can go bankrupt. The sense of priority apparently does not exist there, and that is regrettable.

This legislation that I rise in support of is an important piece of legislation. If, however, it displaced any of those priorities of which the gentleman spoke, I would perhaps share his opinion. We are waiting for some of those priorities to be attended to by the Senate, even if they defeat them.

We have talked about healthcare. We have talked about equal rights. We have talked about campaign finance reform. We have talked about energy. We have talked about so many subjects that are pending silently untended in the United States Senate. So the wringing of hands about this legislation pressing out other priorities I think is not accurate.

It is accurate that this is an important piece of legislation that will do much good. And I thank Chairman Grijalva on the Committee on Natural Resources for steering the legislation before us through his committee and working with the Senate to get it passed through that body.

Mr. Speaker, I also thank the ranking member for his concern about the maintenance and upkeep of our parks. He and I have spoken about that.

I would especially like to thank Representatives Cummings, Sherrill-- who just spoke before me--Congressman Cox, Congresswoman Torres Small, Congresswoman Horn, and Congressman Golden for leading this legislation in the House, along with my good friend Mike Simpson from the State of Idaho.

It should be noted that the bill before us today bears the name of our dear and departed friend John Lewis, who understood that conserving America's great outdoors and public spaces went part and parcel with protecting the legacy of civil rights.

Mr. Speaker, he was, as you know, instrumental in protecting the childhood home, neighborhoods, and church associated with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Atlanta--one of America's great leaders--as part of our National Park System, using the Land and Water Conservation Fund as a critical tool in that process.

The Ebenezer Baptist Church and its visitor center are among the many sites in need of repair today. It was, of course, in Ebenezer in Atlanta, in 1957, that a young John Lewis joined Dr. King and other civil rights pioneers to create the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. What an eerie and poignant coincidence the bill before us is numbered 1957.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to think that John is still here with us, guiding us forward in spirit to continue on the good work he started in Congress some 30 years ago.

Last year, when we enacted a permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund--a great accomplishment of this Congress and, yes, this President--we made it clear that doing so was only the first of a two-step process.

The second step was making sure that the Land and Water Conservation Fund is permanently paid for. That is what this bill does today, with nearly $1 billion annually in mandatory spending to sustain the fund and support critical Federal, State, and local conservation projects across this Nation.

Mr. Speaker, not only that, but the bill creates a new fund that will help address the maintenance backlog in protecting some of our most iconic national parks. The impact of these investments will be felt not only in tourism and improved public access to our public lands, but also in a cleaner and healthier environment over the long term.

In my home State of Maryland, we have used the fund to protect some of our most historic sites, protecting nature so that every American might have the same opportunity to enjoy the sanctity of nature or contact with our history.

I was personally proud to have worked to protect the watershed and the viewshed of George Washington's Mount Vernon site permanently through the creation of Piscataway Park on our side, Maryland's side, of the river.

We also used the fund to protect the Patuxent Research Refuge established to support wildlife research, Douglas Point in Nanjemoy, and countless sites throughout the Chesapeake Bay region.

In all, Maryland has received, over the years, over $230 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund to preserve our State's most treasured landscape and historic places.

Mr. Speaker, this bill before us passed the Senate on a strong bipartisan vote 73-25--in other words, three-quarters of the United States Senate--and I believe we will demonstrate, hopefully, similar overwhelming support in the House later today.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to join in making this critical investment in America's public lands that will conserve them for the enjoyment of generations to come. I ask them to join me, as well, in helping to secure the legacy of our friend John Lewis.

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