Statement of Administration Policy: S. 1693 - Omnibus National Parks and Public Lands Act of 1988

(House)
(Bingaman (D) New Mexico and 8 others)

The President's senior advisers would recommend that he veto S. 1693 if it is presented to him in its current form. This legislation is a consolidation of 38 separate bills and represents a return to the unfortunate practice of combining objectionable and unrelated measures together with otherwise acceptable provisions in an attempt to gain acceptance of the bill. The Administration has opposed, or asked for amendments of, over 20 of the sections of S. 1693 when those proposals were separate bills. Administration objections were based on a number of grounds, including that certain of the proposals:

—      would prematurely establish new units of the National Park System that have not been subject to the normal review to determine their national significance. Many of the proposals appear to be of only local interest and their inclusion would be to the detriment of the entire Park System;

—      concern activities that should be carried out more appropriately by State or local governments;

—      would impair significantly the ability of Federal agencies to carry out their statutory responsibilities;

—      would authorize new land acquisition, construction, and operations activities costing approximately $100 million over the next several years, at a time when appropriations are extremely constrained to care adequately for existing national parks and public lands;

—      would transfer publicly-owned lands to private parties without consideration; and

—      in several cases, would violate the Appointments Clause of the Constitution or raise other serious constitutional concerns.

The Administration strongly recommends that Congress consider the numerous bills contained in S. 1693 separately, and that these bills be amended as recommended previously by the Administration.