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“SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1318-E1319 on July 14, 2010.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010
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speech of
HON. RUSS CARNAHAN
of missouri
in the house of representatives
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Mr. CARNAHAN. Mr. Speaker, the House passed H.R. 4899, the Disaster Relief and Summer Jobs Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2010. Included in this bill is a rider containing federal law exemptions for an Army Corp of Engineers and Transportation project in Dallas, Texas. As co-chairman of the House Historic Preservation Caucus and member of this Chamber, I want to express my opposition to exemptions like these that circumvent the established legislative process, committees of jurisdiction, and longstanding administrative processes.
Section 405 in Chapter 4 of H.R. 4899 would exempt the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) Trinity River Flood Control project in Dallas, Texas, from the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), 16 U.S.C. Sec. 470 et seq., and ``any highway project'' in the ``vicinity'' of the Dallas Floodway from Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act, 49 U.S.C. Sec. 303 and 23 U.S.C. Sec. 138, setting an alarming precedent and undermining our country's national preservation program.
The NHPA establishes preservation as a national policy and directs the Federal government to provide leadership in preserving, restoring, and maintaining historic and cultural sites significant in American history, architecture, archeology, or engineering. To comply with the Act, Federal agencies having direct or indirect jurisdiction over a proposed Federal or federally assisted undertaking must evaluate the effect of the undertaking on any district, site, building, structure, or object that is included in or eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. 16 U.S.C. Sec. 470f (also known as ``Section 106'').
In the case of the Trinity River Flood Control Project, the Corps is currently complying with Section 106 of the NHPA by determining whether or not the Dallas Floodway is eligible for inclusion in the National Register. A 55-page research paper produced last November by the Corps cited the levees' historic importance to the development of modern Dallas and noted that the levees are considered a manmade landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is also planning to build a toll road, and one of the potential routes would run between the two levees. A determination of National Register eligibility could ultimately affect the route by requiring FHWA and local officials to seek feasible and prudent alternatives that would avoid and minimize harm to the historic levee system--this review is commonly referred to as Section 4(f). There is also a need to restore the levees' integrity and comply with the Federal Emergency Management Agency's new flood risk maps for Dallas.
There are hundreds, if not thousands of projects similar to this underway around the country. Those projects are all following federal laws and utilize administrative options to resolve any issues under the NHPA and Section 4(f). There was no evidence that a broad, blanket exemption from NHPA and Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act warranted Congressional intervention to circumvent longstanding, successful administrative procedures already in place that balance practical needs with the protection of historic resources.
This exemption was inappropriate, unnecessary, and unprecedented. There was no evidence that administrative tools would not have been unable to resolve any issues pertaining to the levees on the Trinity River. Congress should have ensured that the available administrative mechanisms had been fully employed before including this broad and unnecessary exemption that would endanger historic resources intrinsic to the development of a major American city and set a dangerous precedent.
The whole purpose of the Section 106 of the NHPA and Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act is to ensure that federal resources are not used to harm historic properties without the consideration of adverse effects and alternatives. A National Register listing or eligibility does not prevent private property owners from harming or even destroying their own historic properties, as long as no federal funding or federal permits are involved. But where taxpayer dollars are awarded, or federal regulatory authority is invoked, those public benefits must be conditioned on compliance with our federal laws that require historic preservation and other policies to be included in the process of planning specific projects. This does not mean that projects cannot proceed where a historic property is involved; it simply means that the impacts of the projects on that property must be considered and if necessary, mitigated.
In 1966 Congress created Section 106 of the NHPA and Section 4(f) of the DOT Act as tools to balance historic preservation concerns with the needs of federal undertakings. These reviews ensure that federal agencies identify any potential conflicts between their undertakings and historic preservation and resolve any conflicts in the public interest. The process has worked efficiently and effectively for nearly fifty years. The NHPA and Section 4(f) exemption language contained in H.R. 4899 is an affront to the Act's visionary framers.
America's industrial and engineering infrastructure, and associated historic properties are essential to the nation's identity--its culture, history, and economy, past, present and future. In the absence of the protections afforded by Section 106 of the NHPA and Transportation's Section 4(f), those corridors have no meaningful procedural guarantees for preservation consideration, ensuring pieces of American history will be lost forever.
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