[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 120 (Sunday, August 21, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 21, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
            ZINGING THE PUBLIC FOR USE OF FEDERAL BOAT RAMPS

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                           HON. PAT WILLIAMS

                               of montana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Sunday, August 21, 1994

  Mr. WILLIAMS. Mr. Speaker, I am today introducing legislation to 
rescind the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authority to impose user fees 
for day use recreationists at Federal reservoirs.
  My bill further establishes that the exclusive circumstance in which 
fees for day use may be charged is if the revenues from those fees are 
put to use improving and managing the area where they were generated.
  Recreational boaters already pay for the conservation and management 
of recreational facilities. In purchasing any boat, folks pay a 10-
percent excise tax which funds the Wallop-Breaux program providing 
State grants for recreation programs. A Federal gas tax is levied on 
marine gas. And many States tax boat registrations to fund waterway 
programs.
  We've gone too far when we zing the public one more time for the use 
of a Federal boat ramp. It's gratuitous, it penalizes people for using 
the facilities they paid for not just through taxes but in the 
contribution of thousands of acres to build these reservoirs.

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