[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 148 (Wednesday, October 29, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S11350]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. FRIST:
  S. 1333. A bill to amend the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 
1965 to allow national park units that cannot charge an entrance or 
admission fee to retain other fees and charges; to the Committee on 
Energy and Natural Resources.


     the land and water conservation fund act amendment act of 1997

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce a measure which 
will help preserve one of our greatest national treasures and maintain 
one of the most significant contributors to the economy of east 
Tennessee. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is by far our 
Nation's most visited national park, both because of its striking 
beauty, wildlife, and recreational opportunities, and for the fact that 
it is within a day's drive of half of the population of the United 
States.
  I have often escaped to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for 
hiking, camping, and enjoying the great outdoors with my three sons. I 
have witnessed the splendor of the turning leaves in the fall, and the 
glory and renewal that springtime brings to the Smokies. Spending time 
in the Smokies allows my family and millions of other families to 
reconnect with nature and to refocus on the fundamental strengths of 
what really holds us together as a family.
  While the Great Smoky Mountains National Park plays such a valuable 
role in the lives of so many American families, it is also a park that 
strains under the burdens of heavy use. Infrastructure and services 
struggle to meet demands which the larger and less-visited parks can 
more easily attain. To compound the problems associated with heavy use 
and popularity, the park is prohibited from collecting an entrance fee 
of any kind. It is the only national park with such a prohibition, thus 
limiting its access to valuable, internally generated resources which 
supplement the budgets of other parks. The result is that the Smokies 
has great difficulty in meeting the infrastructure and maintenance 
needs generated by its 9 million yearly visitors.
  In the 104th Congress we began a program which allowed individual 
parks to keep for their internal use up to 80 percent of the user fees 
collected above and beyond the level of fees collected in 1994. My bill 
will allow the park to retain 100 percent of that amount. While this 
change is modest, it is one way to begin to address the deficit in 
which the Smokies operates every year, and assist in sustaining the 
very attractions which serve to make it our most popular national park.
  In 1910, Teddy Roosevelt said, ``A nation behaves well if it treats 
its natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next 
generation increased, and not impaired, in value.'' Roosevelt was the 
first proponent of what has clearly become a fundamental tenet of the 
preservation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Mr. President, 
we owe it to the future generations of Americans to allow this 
invaluable national treasure to benefit from its own popularity and 
accessibility and to keep more of the revenues from its fees. We can 
thus help ensure that it will continue to offer the services and 
facilities so many millions of families enjoy and will help guard one 
of our Nation's most precious legacies.
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