Introduction Of The Golf Course Preservation And Modernization Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the Golf Course Preservation and Modernization Act to renovate and modernize the three National Park Service, NPS, golf courses in the District of Columbia. Several years of research, investigation and consulting on ways to improve these courses demonstrate this bill is necessary to turn around the deterioration of these unique and valuable federal assets. Langston Golf Course, Rock Creek Golf Course and East Potomac Golf Course are in desperate need of capital investment to maintain and preserve their historic features and to reverse decades of deterioration.

East Potomac Golf Course was built in 1920 and included three courses that accommodated all levels of play, with an 18-hole tournament level course and two 9-hole practice courses. East Potomac was initially segregated, with African Americans permitted to play only on Mondays. The course was desegregated in 1941 by the Secretary of the Interior, Harold Ickes, following pressure from an African American women golfers club, the Wake Robin Golf Club. Rock Creek Golf Course opened in 1923 as a 9-hole golf course and an additional nine holes were added to make Rock Creek an 18-hole tournament level course in 1926. Langston Golf Course opened in 1939 as a segregated golf facility for African Americans and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Langston was the home course to the Royal Golf Club and the Wake Robin Golf Club, the nation's first clubs for African American men and women golfers respectively. Langston was named for John Mercer Langston, the first African American Congressman from Virginia elected in 1888. Originally a 9-hole course, Langston's expansion to an 18-hole course began in 1955, but was not completed until the mid 1980s.

The courses were built and have been administered by the NPS since the early 20th century for the enjoyment of the general public. However, despite their best efforts, NPS has had a constant struggle to maintain the courses. None has been modernized and all three courses have fallen into disrepair and lack the amenities necessary to serve the public today. As a result, they are underused considering their value to the public.

NPS was created by Congress to ``..... conserve the scenery and the natural and historical objects and the wild life therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such a manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.'' (16 U.S.C. 1) However, NPS's own backlog of repairs, its chronic funding limitations, and the continuing use of concession contracts that are inappropriate for the unique capital investment required for golf courses militate against appropriate maintenance, historic preservation and the NPS mission ``to leave them unimpaired for the public enjoyment.'' This bill will restore the original intent of Congress, consistent with this important NPS mission.

The three courses together constitute an undervalued public asset that, if appropriately funded, could be renovated and modernized, facilitating affordable recreation, attracting significantly more golfers, and perhaps producing new revenue for the United States Treasury. Unlike other NPS facilities, golf courses require unique and continuing significant capital investment to keep them not only maintained but operational. As a result for nearly 100 years, the courses have had problems associated with upkeep and insufficient capital investment. Without a ready source for capital investment, apart from appropriations, NPS has continuously struggled to manage and maintain each of these courses since their inception. There is no prospect that the necessary federal funds for capital investment and improvement of golf will be available today or in the future. Moreover, the current fee to play at the golf courses, as established in the concessions contract process, must remain affordable and cannot generate sufficient revenue for NPS or the concessioners to keep the courses properly maintained, or to make the capital investment required for a golf course today. In fact, NPS owes millions of dollars to the concessioner of the golf courses for necessary improvements.

General Services Administration land and real estate professionals and other experts advise that the best option consistent with federal law and practices is to create a long-term ground lease that bundles all three of the courses into a single contract and then to request proposals that allow for response with ideas and alternatives for modernization and maintenance consistent with anticipated use and affordability. This bill requires that historic features of the courses be preserved and that two of the three courses remain affordable to the general public.

The confines of federal concession law inhibited NPS and the concessioner from making improvements to the courses because Federal concession laws are incompatible with golf course operations. Historically, the constrictions of NPS concessions law have been a direct cause of disrepair and capital disinvestment, reducing the quality of play and jeopardizing the historic preservation of the courses. However, the NPS joined two of the three golf courses together for the next seven years under a proposed concession contract that was issued on October 23, 2007. The contract requires only that the next concessioner be able to perform routine repair and maintenance consistent with NPS practice and the limits imposed by concession law. The contract does not and could not impose any requirement that capital improvements be made to the courses, usually guaranteeing that these courses will stay in the same poor condition until 2015. East Potomac was excluded from the proposed concession contract because its concession contract expires next year, not for any reason associated with maintaining and improving the courses for public use. This separates East Potomac, the only financially viable golf course, from Langston and Rock Creek, the two that need subsidy for their operations. The effect will leave Langston and Rock Creek worse off than they are today. Now the contract for East Potomac is expected to be put out this fall.

This bill would require the new lease for East Potomac to be set to expire on the same date as Langston and Rock Creek leases, binds the three courses into one contract and exempts these golf courses from concession law. This approach applies another vehicle commonly used by the federal government to allow for more creative solutions consistent with the NPS mission to preserve general public access and preserve the historic qualities of the courses. The single long-term ground lease for all three courses, designed outside of the constraints of concession law, provided by this bill would encourage private investment in these courses, improve the quality of the courses, ensure affordable play, and preserve their historic nature.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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