[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 14 (Tuesday, February 24, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H540]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE HAYWORTH EDUCATION LAND GRANT ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HAYWORTH. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to report to my 
colleagues and to the people of the Sixth Congressional District of 
Arizona and, indeed, Mr. Speaker, to those who watch us across the 
country on C-SPAN of the latest progress on what I believe can form a 
firm foundation for educational improvement across America but 
especially in rural America. For this morning, Mr. Speaker, a 
subcommittee of the Committee on Resources held hearings on H.R. 2223, 
what my staff has taken to calling HELGA, the Hayworth Education Land 
Grant Act.
  I think this is very important, Mr. Speaker, because this legislation 
is borne out of two historical achievements, one small and little 
noticed, the other of momentous import in our Nation's history vis-a-
vis education.
  The first feature was a little-known bill that was passed into law in 
the final days of the 104th Congress, in my first term representing the 
people of the Sixth District of Arizona, that had to do with the tiny 
Alpine School District located on the Arizona-New Mexico border.
  You see, Mr. Speaker, the people of Alpine came to me and they said, 
we do not have much of a tax base. We no longer are able to really 
harvest the timber in this area. But we have been able to scrimp and 
save and we think we have enough money to build a new school building.
  Now, we should note that the people of Alpine and the students there 
in that school district were holding classes in a small building that 
was formerly a church facility, and these people desperately needed a 
new school. They came and they said, Congressman, we have the money to 
build a new school, but we do not have the money to buy the land on 
which the school would be situated. It would cost us some, well, almost 
one quarter of a million dollars. That is too much for us to handle.
  But the irony is that Alpine sits on the edge of a national forest. A 
federally controlled land. So they asked, would it be possible for the 
Congress to grant a conveyance of 30 acres of land for the construction 
of new athletic and academic facilities to educate the children of the 
Alpine School District? And the good news is that that passed on the 
final day of the 104th Congress; and the people of Alpine, Arizona, are 
building their new school facility.

  Well, Mr. Speaker, as I have often pointed out, one of the most 
accurate observations of life in these United States, indeed of what 
has transpired on the historical stage worldwide, was the observation 
of Mark Twain that history does not repeat itself but it rhymes. And in 
the wake of what transpired with the Alpine School District, I got to 
thinking about what else had been done similarly in American education, 
and I looked back to something that had happened really over one 
century ago when another Member of Congress and another member of the 
Committee on Ways and Means, Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont, 
revolutionized, I do not think that is too strong a term, Madam 
Speaker, revolutionized the whole notion of higher education in this 
country by working for and achieving passage of the Federal Land Grant 
Act, the process of ceding federally controlled land back to the States 
with a promise that those respective States would establish 
institutions of higher learning with a concentration in the 
agricultural and mechanical arts.
  Congressman Morrill looked back at his own life and, more 
importantly, the life of his father. He talked about the fact that his 
father was a blacksmith, a laborer, who spent all of about 6 months 
receiving instruction within the classroom. And he thought it was 
important for the sons and daughters of farmers and laborers to have an 
opportunity to go on to college.
  Passage of the Federal Land Grant Act brought down the barriers to 
higher education one century ago. What had formerly been something only 
for the elite was now available to many.
  In that same spirit, I have introduced the Federal Land Grant Act of 
this 105th Congress that would allow for a uniform procedure for school 
districts to apply for conveyances of land for the construction of new 
school facilities. It carries no budget impact because the land already 
belongs to the Federal Government. But what it can mean to the 
education of schoolchildren in rural America is priceless.
  Madam Speaker, I look forward to speaking more about this perhaps 
later tonight and in further proceedings of this Congress but, Madam 
Speaker, I would also urge Members to actively support H.R. 2223.

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