[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 108 (Monday, July 28, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H5834-H5836]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        NEW MEXICO STATEHOOD AND ENABLING ACT AMENDMENTS OF 1997

  Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
Senate bill (S. 430) to amend the act of June 20, 1910, to protect the 
permanent trust funds of the State of New Mexico from erosion due to 
inflation and modify the basis on which distributions are made from 
those funds.
  The Clerk read as follows:

                                 S. 430

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

     SECTION 1. PERMANENT TRUST FUNDS OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO.

       (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``New Mexico 
     Statehood and Enabling Act Amendments of 1997''.
       (b) Investment of and Distributions From Permanent Trust 
     Funds.--The Act of June 20, 1910 (36 Stat. 557, chapter 310), 
     is amended--
       (1) in the proviso in the second paragraph of section 7, by 
     striking ``the income therefrom only to be used'' and 
     inserting ``distributions from which shall be made in 
     accordance with the first paragraph of section 10 and shall 
     be used'';
       (2) in section 9, by striking ``the interest of which only 
     shall be expended'' and inserting ``distributions from which 
     shall be made in accordance with the first paragraph of 
     section 10 and shall be expended''; and
       (3) in the first paragraph of section 10, by adding at the 
     end the following: ``The trust funds, including all interest, 
     dividends, other income, and appreciation in the market value 
     of assets of the funds shall be prudently invested on a total 
     rate of return basis. Distributions from the trust funds 
     shall be made as provided in Article 12, Section 7 of the 
     Constitution of the State of New Mexico.''.
       (c) Consent of Congress.--Congress consents to the 
     amendments to the Constitution of the State of New Mexico 
     proposed by Senate Joint Resolution 2 of the 42nd Legislature 
     of the State of New Mexico, Second Session, 1996, entitled 
     ``A Joint Resolution proposing amendments to Article 8, 
     Section 10 and Article 12, Sections 2, 4 and 7 of the 
     Constitution of New Mexico to protect the State's permanent 
     funds against inflation by limiting distributions to a 
     percentage of each fund's market value and by modifying 
     certain investment restrictions to allow optimal 
     diversification of investments'', approved by the voters of 
     the State of New Mexico on November 5, 1996.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New 
Jersey [Mr. Saxton] and the gentleman from American Samoa [Mr. 
Faleomavaega] each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Saxton].
  Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, S. 430 is identical to H.R. 1051, a bill introduced by 
my colleague, the gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Skeen]. S. 430 is a 
result of very hard work by the gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Skeen] 
and the entire New Mexico delegation and has no opposition from the 
Administration. Furthermore, this bill is very beneficial to citizens 
of New Mexico.

[[Page H5835]]

  I would also like to commend my other colleague, the gentleman from 
New Mexico [Mr. Schiff], who has added his support to the bill. S. 430 
would amend the New Mexico Enabling Act of June 20, 1910, in order to 
protect the permanent trust funds of the State of New Mexico from 
erosion due to inflation by modifying the basis on which distributions 
are made from those funds and by loosening the current investment 
restrictions. The modifications include changing the payout to a fixed 
percentage of the fund, thereby allowing a portion of the interest and 
dividend income received to be reinvested. This bill would also loosen 
investment restrictions and allow broader investments options and 
opportunities.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill has already been overwhelmingly endorsed by 
the voters of New Mexico, has been passed by the Senate, and I urge my 
colleagues to support S. 430.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  (Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA asked and was given permission to revise and extend 
his remarks.)
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, S. 430 is an important housekeeping measure that amends 
the act of June 20, 1910, which provided statehood to the territory of 
New Mexico. The bill changes the manner in which State permanent funds 
are invested and also changes the distribution formula for fund 
revenues.
  Mr. Speaker, the voters of New Mexico approved these changes to the 
New Mexico State Constitution in 1996 in an effort to maximize the 
returns of the funds, which are used for education and the care of the 
poor and needy in the State of New Mexico. Since the revenues in the 
two New Mexico funds are derived from activities that occur on former 
Federal lands granted to the State under the Enabling Act of 1910, it 
is necessary to obtain the consent of Congress before the State's 
constitutional amendments can be implemented.
  The Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands held a hearing on 
H.R. 1051, the House companion bill to S. 430, on June 17, 1997. The 
legislation is supported by the entire New Mexico congressional 
delegation. The administration has no objection to the measure, and I 
am not aware of any controversy associated with this bill. I support S. 
430 and recommend that the House approve this proposed legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Skeen], the author of the House bill, 
who has worked untiringly to bring this bill to the floor, and my 
gratitude to the gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Skeen] for the hard 
work that he has pursued on this measure.
  Mr. SKEEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. 
Saxton] for yielding me the time. Also, I want to thank majority and 
minority groups for the rapidity with which they have responded to an 
emergency situation insofar as this kind of enabling act is concerned. 
I want to express the greatest appreciation to the majority and 
minority leadership for their help in expediting the consideration, and 
I also want to express my sincere thanks to the leadership of the House 
of Representatives committee and their staffs.
  Members on both sides of the aisle have gone out of their way to help 
New Mexico, and I want to express our greatest appreciation to all of 
them for doing this in a timely fashion. I am not going to spend a lot 
of time on this because I think the responses from the two gentleman 
that are handling the bill today indicates the nature and why it is 
here before us.
  And once again, I will say it over and over again, this proves that 
this body can move rapidly to a situation and with much appreciation 
for the rapidity in which they have done this because it was becoming 
an emergency kind of situation for New Mexico.
  Thanks once again to the entire body and members of the staff and 
those folks who support this bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I am here today to support passage of S. 430, a bill 
amending the New Mexico Statehood and Enabling Act of 1910. The entire 
New Mexico delegation supports this legislation as well as Gov. Gary 
Johnson and the State legislature.
  I do want to express our State's greatest appreciation to the 
majority and minority leadership for their help in expediting the 
consideration of the legislation. I also want to express my sincere 
thanks to the leadership of the House Resources Committee and their 
staffs.
  Members on both sides of the aisle have gone out of their way to help 
New Mexico and I want to express our appreciation.
  This legislation is identical to H.R. 1051 which was cosponsored by 
Representative Steve Schiff and Representative Bill Redmond. The Parks 
and Public Lands Subcommittee of the House Resources Committee held a 
hearing on the legislation June 17. There is no opposition to the 
legislation and the administration has no objection to the legislation. 
S. 430 passed the Senate on May 22, 1997.
  Basically the issue behind this legislation involves the manner in 
which the State of New Mexico invests its money and how it then 
disperses the funds to our public schools, higher education, State 
hospitals, the School for the Visually Handicapped, the School for the 
Deaf, and others. The Enabling Act has governed the distribution of 
State investment funds and related activities since statehood. However 
as investment patterns changed it became apparent to New Mexico that 
the system no longer was keeping pace with modern investment 
strategies. Following an intensive review the issue was placed before 
the voters last year as an amendment to the New Mexico Constitution. 
The amendment passed by a 2 to 1 margin. All this legislation does is 
amend the New Mexico Statehood and Enabling Act so it is in conformity 
with this new change in the New Mexico Constitution.
  In 1957 Congress amended the Enabling Act to allow State permanent 
fund investments in corporate stocks for the first time. However, that 
amendment made no provision regarding how distributions were to be made 
from investment returns from the stock. So in fact it was ruled that 
only dividends from stocks could be distributed which has the effect 
that no significant investments were made in stocks. The real impact 
meant that investments were in fact basically limited to investments 
that were income based.
  Mr. Speaker, New Mexico's budget year begins on July 1. Passage of 
this legislation now will allow the State to disburse last year's 
earnings for the benefit of meeting the educational needs of the 
State's children. It is important that the New Mexico permanent fund be 
managed in a modern and effective manner. These changes will allow that 
to happen and further it will allow the State to preserve the two 
permanent funds the State maintains for future generations. In closing 
I once again want to thank everyone involved in helping New Mexico gain 
passage of this important legislation.
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I too certainly would like to commend 
the gentleman from New Mexico [Mr. Skeen] as the chief sponsor of this 
piece of this legislation. I am sure that on a bipartisan basis we are 
able to work very well in getting this piece of legislation through 
this Chamber. I thank the gentleman for being here and for the comity 
on the work that both subcommittee members have tried earnestly to get 
this legislation through.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. 
Pallone].
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I am in support of the bill at hand, but I 
really got up because I would like to speak on H.R. 1855, which I know 
just passed. I am very pleased over the fact that it did. This is an 
important bill, H.R. 1855, that protects an important resource to 
fishermen in my district from overutilization and depletion.
  I would like to just summarize by saying that H.R. 1855 serves to 
prohibit large fishing vessels from engaging in the harvest of Atlantic 
herring and Atlantic mackerel within our EEZ waters. Mr. Speaker, these 
large vessels should be temporarily restricted from the Atlantic 
herring and Atlantic mackerel fishery until accurate information has 
been collected. To date, no ship of this size has fished this 
vulnerable fishery.
  I must inform this Chamber that I am not concerned as to whether NMFS 
has declared these stocks to be fully utilized or even underutilized. 
These vessels have the potential of making any fishery overutilized in 
a short period of time. Large fishing trawlers are highly efficient and 
can catch five to six times more than any vessel currently registered 
with NMFS on the Atlantic coast. Furthermore, the processing capacity 
of large vessels is so great that they can fill quotas. As a result, 
these ships will compromise the

[[Page H5836]]

Atlantic herring and the Atlantic mackerel fishing seasons.
  As members of our committee are aware, stock quotas are spread over a 
number of ships and are not meant to be filled by a small percentage of 
ships. My fear is that a large, highly efficient ship could close a 
fishery and reduce its stock simply because of the number of fish it 
can catch. I am concerned with NMFS's ability to react if 
overutilization occurs and this fishery needs to be shut down. If we 
allow a ship of this size into a forage fishery and we are mistaken as 
to the size of the stock, we will have a problem. And I would prefer 
that we err on the side of conservation, not exploitation.
  In the past, we have encouraged highly efficient gears to fish 
underutilized stocks. I do not want to get into examples. But I have to 
say that in the 1980's we encouraged the fishing gears to redirect 
efforts toward the shark species. At the time, sharks were considered 
to be underutilized. Since then, we have witnessed a drop in various 
shark species as a result of this redirected effort.
  Mr. Speaker, we should learn from that mistake and be cautious of 
redirecting any highly efficient gear. I want to say, Mr. Speaker, that 
a vote in favor of H.R. 1855 is a vote for protecting one of our 
Nation's largest public resource. We have the opportunity to save the 
fish stock not only for those fishermen who depend on this resource 
along the Atlantic coast, but for future generations of fishermen as 
well. That is why I strongly urge my colleagues to support and pass 
H.R. 1855.
  I want to thank the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Saxton] for all 
the work that he has done on this legislation.
  I would also like to note that with the depleted state of the North 
Atlantic groundfish, and restrictions on other fisheries, certain New 
England fishermen have been forced into the mackerel and herring 
fishery. It is my belief that this highly efficient gear will most 
likely compromise their needs and whatever relief these fishermen have 
experienced through herring and mackerel fisheries.
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers at this 
time, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. SAXTON. Mr. Speaker, we have no additional speakers at this time, 
and I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Saxton] that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the Senate bill, S. 430.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor 
thereof) the rules were suspended and the Senate bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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