San Antonia Missions National Historical Park Leasing and Boundary Expansion Act

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Mrs. LUMMIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 4438 has both fiscal and policy problems. The stated purpose of this bill is to expand the park by an additional 151 acres. The reasons for the expansion are vague, but the CBO cost estimate is fairly precise, $4 million. Add to this another $350,000 that will be spent by the National Park Service to determine whether it wants even more property.

The current level of Federal spending is too high to rubber-stamp the flood of plans to expand our government's property holdings. Our parks are important assets, but I question the wisdom of going further into debt to continually expand Park Service holdings while our existing parks face a $9 billion backlog in maintenance and upkeep.

I am pleased that the Resources Committee did include one Republican amendment to prohibit takings by condemnation. However, under this bill, property owners who have not consented to being included within the expanded boundaries of this park may find themselves fending off the unwanted attention of Federal officials pursuing their land. This can be an overwhelming burden and not one with which we should yoke the American people.

I am also concerned that national parks are increasingly being used by litigation-prone environmental activists and by some in the National Park Service to control activities outside the congressionally determined boundaries of each park.

De facto buffer zones have been used to interfere with energy projects that are planned near and even far from national parks.

To restrain this particular abuse, Republicans offered amendments in the Resources Committee to prevent the park designation from being misused to prohibit construction and maintenance of power generating facilities, whether coal-fired, wind or solar. With some people opposed to almost any new power facility, and others opposed only to those near their backyards, this has been an escalating problem. The National Park Service has participated in killing or delaying affordable and renewable energy projects from coast to coast. Unfortunately, Committee Democrats rejected these commonsense amendments on nearly party-line votes, and those protections are not in this bill today.

Unfortunately, we are considering this bill under suspension of the rules and we are being denied the opportunity to offer amendments to salvage this flawed legislation. I urge my colleagues to exercise some fiscal restraint here today, support property rights, and oppose this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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