The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the Senate section on pages S7193-S7195 on June 22, 2004.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS
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SENATE RESOLUTION 387--COMMEMORATING THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
WILDERNESS ACT
Mr. FEINGOLD (for himself, Mr. Sununu, Mr. Hagel, Mr. Durbin, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. McCain, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Lugar, Mr. Warner, Mr. Chafee, Ms. Snowe, and Ms. Collins) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources:
S. Res. 387
Whereas September 3, 2004, will mark the 40th Anniversary of the enactment of the Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq.), which gave to the people of the United States an enduring resource of natural heritage as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System;
Whereas great American writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, George Perkins Marsh, and John Muir joined poets like William Cullen Bryant, and painters such as Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, Frederic Remington, Albert Bierstadt, and Thomas Moran to define the United States' distinct cultural value of wild nature and unique concept of wilderness;
Whereas national leaders such as President Theodore Roosevelt reveled in outdoor pursuits and sought diligently to preserve those opportunities for molding individual character, shaping a nation's destiny, striving for balance, and ensuring the wisest use of natural resources, to provide the greatest good for the greatest many;
Whereas luminaries in the conservation movement, such as scientist Aldo Leopold, forester Bob Marshall, writer Howard Zahniser, teacher Sigurd Olson, biologists Olaus and Adolph Murie, and conservationist David Brower believed that the people of the United States could have the boldness to project into the eternity of the future some of the wilderness that has come from the eternity of the past;
Whereas Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, a Democrat from Minnesota, and Representative John Saylor, a Republican from Pennsylvania, originally introduced the legislation with strong bipartisan support in both bodies of Congress;
Whereas with the help of their colleagues, including cosponsors Gaylord Nelson, William Proxmire, and Henry
``Scoop'' M. Jackson, and other conservation allies, including Secretary of Interior Stewart L. Udall and Representative Morris K. Udall, Senator Humphrey and Representative Saylor toiled 8 years to secure nearly unanimous passage of the legislation, 78 to 8 in the Senate, and 373 to 1 in the House of Representatives;
Whereas critical support in the Senate for the Wilderness Act came from 3 Senators who still serve in the Senate as of 2004: Senator Robert C. Byrd, Senator Daniel Inouye, and Senator Edward M. Kennedy;
Whereas President John F. Kennedy, who came into office in 1961 with enactment of wilderness legislation part of his administration's agenda, was assassinated before he could sign a bill into law;
Whereas 4 wilderness champions, Aldo Leopold, Olaus Murie, Bob Marshall, and Howard Zahniser, sadly, also passed away before seeing the fruits of their labors ratified by Congress and sent to the President;
Whereas President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Wilderness Act in the Rose Garden on September 3, 1964, establishing a system of wilderness heritage as President Kennedy and the conservation community had so ardently envisioned and eloquently articulated;
Whereas now, as a consequence of wide popular support, the people of the United States have a system of places wild and free for the permanent good of the whole people of this great Nation;
Whereas over the past 40 years the system for protecting an enduring resource of wilderness has been built upon by subsequent Presidents, successive leaders of Congress, and experts in the land managing agencies within the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture;
Whereas today that system is 10 times larger than when first established;
Whereas the Wilderness Act instituted an unambiguous national policy to recognize the natural heritage of the United States as a resource of value and to protect that wilderness for future generations to use and enjoy as previous and current generations have had the opportunity to do;
Whereas since 1964, when the first 9,000,000 acres of wilderness were included by Congress, more than 110 additional laws have been passed to build the National Wilderness Preservation System to its current size of 106,000,000 acres;
Whereas wild places protected in perpetuity can currently be found and enjoyed in 44 of the Nation's 50 States;
Whereas this wealth of the heritage of the United States can be seen today from Alaska to Florida in over 650 units, from Fire Island in New York's Long Island South Shore and Ohio's West Sister Island in Lake Erie, to far larger Mojave in eastern California and Idaho's River of No Return;
Whereas President Gerald R. Ford stated that the National Wilderness Preservation System ``serves a basic need of all Americans, even those who may never visit a wilderness area--the preservation of a vital element of our natural heritage'' and that, ``wilderness preservation ensures that a central facet of our Nation can still be realized, not just remembered''; and
Whereas President Gerald R. Ford has joined with President Jimmy Carter and more than 100 other prominent United States citizens as honored members of Americans for Wilderness, a committee formed to celebrate this national achievement: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) commemorates the 40th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act
(16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq.);
(2) recognizes and applauds the extraordinary work of the individuals and organizations involved in building the National Wilderness Preservation System; and
(3) is grateful for the tremendous asset the United States has been able to pass along as a gift to future people of the United States.
Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, as founder of the Senate Wilderness Caucus, I am submitting a Senate resolution today to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act of 1964, which was signed into law on September 3, 1964, by President Lyndon B. Johnson. I thank the following colleagues for their support as cosponsors: Senator Sununu, Senator Hagel, Senator Durbin, Senator Boxer, Senator McCain, Senator Murray, Senator Lugar, Senator Warner, Senator Chafee, Senator Snowe, and Senator Collins.
The Wilderness Act became law seven years after the first wilderness bill was introduced by Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota. The final bill, sponsored by Senator Clinton Anderson of New Mexico, passed the Senate by a vote of 73-12 on April 9, 1963, and passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 373-1 on July 30, 1964. The Wilderness Act of 1964 established a National Wilderness Preservation System ``to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness.'' The law gives Congress the authority to designate wilderness areas, and directs the Federal land management agencies to review the lands under their responsibility for their wilderness potential.
Under the Wilderness Act, wilderness is defined as ``an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence which generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable.'' The creation of a national wilderness system marked an innovation in the American conservation movement--wilderness would be a place where our ``management strategy'' would be to leave lands essentially undeveloped.
The original Wilderness Act established 9.1 million acres of Forest Service land in 54 wilderness areas. Now, after passage of 102 pieces of legislation, the wilderness system is comprised of over 104 million acres in 625 wilderness areas, across 44 States, and administered by four federal agencies: the Forest Service in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service in the Department of the Interior.
As we in this body know well, the passage and enactment of the Wilderness Act was a remarkable accomplishment that required steady, bipartisan commitment, institutional support, and strong leadership. The United States Senate was instrumental in shaping this very important law, and this anniversary gives us the opportunity to recognize this role.
As a Senator from Wisconsin, I feel a special bond with this issue. The concept of wilderness is inextricably linked with Wisconsin. Wisconsin has produced great wilderness thinkers and leaders in the wilderness movement such as Senator Gaylord Nelson and the writer and conservationist Aldo Leopold, whose A Sand County Almanac helped to galvanize the environmental movement. Also notable is Sierra Club founder John Muir, whose birthday is the day before Earth Day. Wisconsin also produced Sigurd Olson, one of the founders of the Wilderness Society.
I am privileged to hold the Senate seat held by Gaylord Nelson, a man for whom I have the greatest admiration and respect. Though he is a well-known and widely respected former Senator and former two-term Governor of Wisconsin, and the founder of Earth Day, some may not be aware that he is currently devoting his time to the protection of wilderness by serving as a counselor to the Wilderness Society--an activity which is quite appropriate for someone who was also a co-
sponsor, along with former Senator Proxmire, of the bill that became the Wilderness Act.
The testimony at congressional hearings and the discussion of the bill in the press of the day reveals Wisconsin's crucial role in the long and continuing American debate about our wild places, and in the development of the Wilderness Act. The names and ideas of John Muir, Sigurd Olson, and, especially, Aldo Leopold, appear time and time again in the legislative history.
Senator Clinton Anderson of New Mexico, chairman of what was then called the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, stated that his support of the wilderness system was the direct result of discussions he had held almost forty years before with Leopold, who was then in the Southwest with the Forest Service. It was Leopold who, while with the Forest Service, advocated the creation of a primitive area in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico in 1923. The Gila Primitive Area formally became part of the wilderness system when the Wilderness Act became law.
In a statement in favor of the Wilderness Act in the New York Times, then-Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall discussed ecology and what he called ``a land ethic'' and referred to Leopold as the instigator of the modern wilderness movement. At a Senate hearing in 1961, David Brower of the Sierra Club went so far as to claim that ``no man who reads Leopold with an open mind will ever again, with a clear conscience, be able to step up and testify against the wilderness bill.'' For others, the ideas of Olson and Muir--particularly the idea that preserving wilderness is a way for us to better understand our country's history and the frontier experience--provided a justification for the wilderness system.
In closing, I would like to remind colleagues of the words of Aldo Leopold in his 1949 book, A Sand County Almanac. He said, ``The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not the television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only those who know the most about it can appreciate how little is known about it.'' We still have much to learn, but this anniversary of the Wilderness Act reminds us how far we have come and how the commitment to public lands that the Senate and the Congress demonstrated forty years ago continues to benefit all Americans.
Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleagues in cosponsoring this resolution to honor and celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act, and the contributions of those who have created a glorious wilderness system throughout the United States for all Americans to enjoy.
This anniversary provides a time for personal reflection on what wild places mean to us as individuals and society as a whole. As I consider the fact that this July 4 our country will celebrate her 228th year of independence, I marvel at the great changes she has seen. America has seen wars, the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression, the Technology Age, times of prosperity and times of challenge. With all of these changes, much of America's landscape has been transformed.
I also think back to America as I knew her as a child and how she has rapidly grown and changed during my 77 years. I feel indebted to those whose foresight resulted in the Wilderness Act legislation, and whose tireless efforts saw this act signed into law. In addition, I recognize all those who have championed the expansion of the wilderness system which now encompasses 106,000,000 acres nationwide.
During my 26 years in the U.S. Senate, I have worked to pass three Virginia wilderness bills through Congress. In fact, I recently introduced the Virginia Ridge and Valley Wilderness and National Scenic Areas Act of 2004 which, if passed, would create an additional 29,000 acres of wilderness in southwest Virginia. With 177,214 acres of wilderness, Virginia's wild and beautiful landscapes will remain untouched by civilization. Visitors from across America can experience Virginia's wilderness and enjoy great beauty, solitude, primitive recreation, and nature in its true form.
I feel very strongly that the Wilderness Act is a vehicle whereby we can pay tribute to our great country by preserving some of her heritage and history. Though development, growth and change continue, we will have pockets of undisturbed lands for solitude, reflection, and recreation. In these areas we can keep America's natural diversity, wildlife habitats, and vegetation intact. Through the efforts, passion, and vision of many, we will leave a natural legacy of wildlands to future generations of America.
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SENATE RESOLUTION 388--COMMEMORATING THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
FOUNDING OF THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
Mr. SANTORUM (for himself and Mr. Specter) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary:
S. Res. 388
Whereas in 1854, the Farmers' High School was founded in Centre County, Pennsylvania in response to the State Agricultural Society's interest in establishing an educational institution to bring general education and modern farming methods to the farmers of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania;
Whereas in 1855, the Farmers' High School was granted a permanent charter by the Pennsylvania General Assembly;
Whereas the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 provided for the distribution of grants of public lands owned by the Federal Government to the States for establishing and maintaining institutions of higher learning;
Whereas in 1863, the Commonwealth accepted a grant of land provided through such Act, establishing one of the first two land-grant institutions in the United States, and designated the Farmers' High School, renamed the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania, as the Commonwealth's sole land-grant institution;
Whereas in 1874, the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania was renamed The Pennsylvania State College and in 1953, such was renamed The Pennsylvania State University;
Whereas with a current enrollment of 83,000, The Pennsylvania State University consists of 11 academic schools, 20 additional campuses located throughout the Commonwealth, the College of Medicine, The Dickinson School of Law, and The Pennsylvania College of Technology;
Whereas 1 in every 8 Pennsylvanians with a college degree, 1 in every 720 Americans, 1 in every 50 engineers, and 1 in every 4 meteorologists are alumni of The Pennsylvania State University;
Whereas formed in 1870, The Pennsylvania State University Alumni Association is the largest dues-paying alumni association in the nation;
Whereas The Pennsylvania State University has the largest outreach effort in United States higher education, delivering programs to learners in 87 countries and all 50 States;
Whereas The Pennsylvania State University consistently ranks in the top 3 universities in terms of SAT scores received from high school seniors;
Whereas The Pennsylvania State University annually hosts the largest student-run philanthropic event in the world, which benefits the Four Diamonds Fund for families with children being treated for cancer;
Whereas the missions of instruction, research, outreach and extension continue to be the focus of The Pennsylvania State University;
Whereas The Pennsylvania State University is renown for the following: the rechargeable heart pacemaker design, the heart-assist pump design, 4 astronauts to have flown in space including the first African-American, and the first institution to offer an Agriculture degree; and
Whereas The Pennsylvania State University is one of the most highly regarded research universities in the nation, with an outreach extension program that reaches nearly 1 out of 2 Pennsylvanians a year and an undergraduate school of immense scope and popularity: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate commemorates the 150th anniversary of the founding of The Pennsylvania State University and congratulates its faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends on the occasion.
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