[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1921 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1921

To amend the American Battlefield Protection Act of 1996 to extend the 
          authorization for that Act, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             August 1, 2007

   Mr. Webb (for himself, Mr. Sessions, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Pryor, Mr. 
 Cornyn, Mr. Bunning, Mr. Lott, Mr. Cardin, Mr. Warner, Mrs. Lincoln, 
 Mr. Burr, Mrs. Hutchison, Mr. Alexander, Mr. Durbin, Mrs. McCaskill, 
 and Mrs. Clinton) introduced the following bill; which was read twice 
     and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the American Battlefield Protection Act of 1996 to extend the 
          authorization for that Act, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Civil War Battlefield Preservation 
Act of 2007''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) Civil War battlefields provide a means for the people 
        of the United States to understand a tragic period in the 
        history of the United States.
            (2) According to the Report on the Nation's Civil War 
        Battlefields, prepared by the Civil War Sites Advisory 
        Commission, and dated July 1993, of the 384 principal Civil War 
        battlefields--
                    (A) almost 20 percent are lost or fragmented;
                    (B) 17 percent are in poor condition; and
                    (C) 60 percent have been lost or are in imminent 
                danger of being fragmented by development and lost as 
                coherent historic sites.
    (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are--
            (1) to act quickly and proactively to preserve and protect 
        nationally significant Civil War battlefields through 
        conservation easements and fee-simple purchases of those 
        battlefields from willing sellers at fair market value;
            (2) to create partnerships among State and local 
        governments, regional entities, and the private sector to 
        preserve, conserve, and enhance nationally significant Civil 
        War battlefields; and
            (3) to prepare our Nation for the upcoming sesquicentennial 
        commemoration of the Civil War, 2011 through 2015, which is 
        expected to stimulate renewed interest in the conflict and 
        generate unprecedented visitation to preserved Civil War 
        battlegrounds.

SEC. 3. AUTHORIZATION EXTENDED.

    The American Battlefield Protection Act of 1996 (16 U.S.C. 469k) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (d)(7)(A), by striking ``fiscal years 
        2004 through 2008'' and inserting ``fiscal years 2009 through 
        2013''; and
            (2) in subsection (e), by striking ``September 30, 2008'' 
        and inserting ``September 30, 2013''.
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