Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions S1848

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

By Mr. WYDEN (for himself and Mr. Smith):

S. 1848. A bill to amend the Bend Pine Nursery Land Conveyance Act to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to sell the Bend Pine Nursery Administration Site in the State of Oregon; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, today I am introducing a bill, with my friend and colleague Senator Smith of Oregon, to amend the Bend Pine Nursery Land Conveyance Act, enacted three years ago, authorizing the sale of the U.S. Forest Service Bend Pine Nursery to the community of Bend, OR, for use as a public park and recreation facility.

In the original bill, Senator Smith, Congressman Walden and I sought to achieve some very basic objectives. We wanted the community of Bend to take title to a property which for many years had been a federally owned plantation for growing pine seedlings, and which will now make a superb park and ball field complex for the use of the community. At the same time, the bill authorized the sale of several other properties in order to raise an account enabling the Forest Service to acquire a new headquarters for the Deschutes National Forest.

In 1999, we drafted the original legislation in very close consultation with the U.S. Forest Service based on the assumption that in so doing, the agency would have the necessary tools and direction to move swiftly to implement the legislation. The intent of the legislation was to have the Forest Service sell the property to the Bend Parks District within a year of its enactment at the estimated value of the property at that time, $3 million.

Unfortunately, the goodwill built up throughout the drafting process was squandered by the Forest Service. Two years of delays in the implementation of the original legislation resulted in an appraised price of $5.8 million as opposed to the $3 million this property was assumed to be worth when the original Bend Pine Nursery Land Conveyance was enacted in 2000. This delay has been inconsistent with the intent of the original legislation and runs entirely contrary to the interest of Bend taxpayers.

The community has always been more than willing to pay fair value for this property, and their goodwill and their tax dollars should not be wasted any longer.

The bill I introduce today resolves the issues that stand in the way of implementation of this simple land sale in a fair manner, directing the sale to move forward expeditiously for $3.5 million. That figure is arrived at by assuming the $3 million value of the property on the day the original Act was passed, allowing for inflation per the Forest Service's calculations, and then deducting the value of acreage that the Forest Service has decided not to sell and 15 acres the Forest Service has the ability to transfer to the local school district at no cost.

I look forward to the expeditious resolution to this issue.

I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill to be printed in the RECORD.