[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 141 (Thursday, October 3, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S12267]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             THE PARKS BILL

  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, we sit here and watch the clock move 
forward as we close this Senate. I have been involved in the last 
several days in trying to get the parks bill before we leave. Forty-one 
States have park projects in this bill. It is extremely important to so 
many. We have been literally working round the clock to try to come to 
some agreement. Senator Bradley, myself, Senator Murkowski, Leon 
Panetta, and his staff have been virtually working on this full time 
for the last several days. We do not yet have an agreement. We are 
close to an agreement.
  But there is a very important concept in the letter from the 
administration to Senator Murkowski that deals with ensuring that all 
applicable laws would pertain to the Tongass. This is a sticking point 
at this moment.
  Mr. President, I just come here to express my public wish that we can 
come together on this matter because it seems to me that it would be 
tragic if we couldn't come together when we are so close and we lose 
over 100 parks because one Senator felt that the wording didn't 
accurately reflect his view. I really feel that when we negotiate with 
one another--and it is very difficult to do it--that we know that 
underlying everything the laws of the United States of America will 
apply to whatever we do. So whether it was stated, or whether it was 
stated in writing or not, it should not, it seems to me, be a breaking 
point.
  It has been a very long negotiation. I still have hope, although I 
have to say I think it is a 50-50 situation at this point. I hope that 
we can close this U.S. Senate out with a fitting tribute to the people 
we all serve, and pass this parks bill.
  I just hope that we can come together. None of us gets everything we 
want in life. Certainly there are many things which I have been working 
for that are not reflected in this bill, and I will come back another 
day to fight those battles.
  But when the House of Representatives gets to pass a bill with only 
40 dissenting votes--I hope the majority leader and the minority leader 
agree--it seems to me that this U.S. Senate should be able to do the 
same thing.
  We should try to help each other gain the respect we all deserve for 
our points of view but at the end of the day--and at the end of this 
day and at the end of this session--we ought to bring home a parks 
bill.
  Mr. President, for me it has been a very exciting Congress in many 
ways, and toward the end, it was able to pick up some steam, and we 
were able to be more bipartisan. I only hope that in the next hour or 
so we will come together, and that we will get a parks bill that gives 
us all comfort. I say ``gives us all comfort'' because it is a good 
bill. It is a bipartisan bill, and it is what we were sent here to do.
  Thank you, very much, Mr. President.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________