[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 122 (Tuesday, September 15, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H7758-H7760]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COLLECTION OF FEES FOR MAKING OF MOTION PICTURES, TELEVISION
PRODUCTIONS, AND SOUND TRACKS IN NATIONAL PARK AND NATIONAL WILDLIFE
REFUGE SYSTEM
Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
bill (H.R. 2993) to provide for the collection of fees for the making
of motion pictures, television productions, and sound tracks in the
National Park System and National Wildlife Refuge System units, and for
other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read as follows:
H.R. 2993
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FEE AUTHORITY AND REPEAL OF PROHIBITION.
(a) Authority.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of the Interior (in this
section referred to as the ``Secretary'') may permit, under
terms and conditions considered necessary by the Secretary,
the use of lands and facilities administered by the Secretary
for the making of any motion picture, television production,
soundtrack, or similar project, if the Secretary determines
that such use is appropriate and will not impair the values
and resources of the lands and facilities.
(2) Fees.--(A) Any permit under this section shall require
the payment of fees to the Secretary in an amount determined
to be appropriate by the Secretary sufficient to provide a
fair return to the government in accordance with subparagraph
(B), except as provided in subparagraph (C). The amount of
the fee shall be not less than the direct and indirect costs
to the Government for processing the application for the
permit and the use of lands and facilities under the permit,
including any necessary costs of cleanup and restoration,
except as provided in subparagraph (C).
(B) The authority of the Secretary to establish fees under
this paragraph shall include, but not be limited to,
authority to issue regulations that establish a schedule of
rates for fees under this paragraph based on such factors
as--
(i) the number of people on site under a permit;
(ii) the duration of activities under a permit;
(iii) the conduct of activities under a permit in areas
designated by statute or regulations as special use areas,
including wilderness and research natural areas; and
(iv) surface disturbances authorized under a permit.
(C) The Secretary may, under the terms of the regulations
promulgated under paragraph (4), charge a fee below the
amount referred to in subparagraph (A) if the activity for
which the fee is charged provides clear educational or
interpretive benefits for the Department of the Interior.
(3) Bonding and insurance.--The Secretary may require a
bond, insurance, or such other means as may be necessary to
protect the interests of the United States in activities
arising under such a permit.
(4) Regulations.--(A) The Secretary shall issue regulations
implementing this subsection by not later than 180 days after
the date of the enactment of this Act.
(B) Within 3 years after the date of enactment of this Act,
the Secretary shall review and, as appropriate, revise
regulations issued under this paragraph. After that time, the
[[Page H7759]]
Secretary shall periodically review the regulations and make
necessary changes.
(b) Collection of Fees.--Fees shall be collected under
subsection (a) whenever the proposed filming, videotaping,
sound recording, or still photography involves product or
service advertisements, or the use of models, actors, sets,
or props, or when such filming, videotaping, sound recording,
or still photography could result in damage to resources or
significant disruption of normal visitor uses. Filming,
videotaping, sound recording or still photography, including
bona fide newsreel or news television film gathering, which
does not involve the activities or impacts identified herein,
shall be permitted without fee.
(c) Existing Regulations.--The prohibition on fees set
forth in paragraph (1) of section 5.1(b) of title 43, Code of
Federal Regulations, shall cease to apply upon the effective
date of regulations under subsection (a). Nothing in this
section shall be construed to affect the regulations set
forth in part 5 of such title, other than paragraph (1)
thereof.
(d) Proceeds.--Amounts collected as fees under this section
shall be available for expenditure without further
appropriation and shall be distributed and used, without
fiscal year limitation, in accordance with the formula and
purposes established for the Recreational Fee Demonstration
Program under section 315 of Public Law 104-134.
(e) Penalty.--A person convicted of violating any
regulation issued under subsection (a) shall be fined in
accordance with title 18, United States Code, or imprisoned
for not more than 6 months, or both, and shall be ordered to
pay all costs of the proceedings.
(f) Effective Date.--This section and the regulations
issued under this section shall become effective 180 days
after the date of the enactment of this Act, except that this
subsection and the authority of the Secretary to issue
regulations under this section shall be effective on the date
of the enactment of this Act.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). Pursuant to the rule, the
gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen) and the gentleman from American Samoa
(Mr. Faleomavaega) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Hansen).
Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2993 is a bill introduced by my colleague, the
gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Joel Hefley). The gentleman from Colorado
deserves credit for the work he has put in to develop a bill that
provides a new way for the National Park Service and other Federal
agencies to collect fees from the motion picture industry who use Park
Service and other Federal lands in the making of their movies.
H.R. 2993 repeals the existing Department of the Interior regulatory
prohibition on collecting fees at units of the National Park System and
the National Wildlife Refuge System for the use of these areas for
commercial film productions. H.R. 2993 authorizes the Secretary to
establish a fee schedule using a number of relevant factors, such as
the number of people on site and the duration of the filming
activities. However, this bill would not affect newsreel or television
news activities. Proceeds from these location fees would remain in the
unit where the filming occurs, as per the Recreational Fee
Demonstration Program established in the 1997 Interior Appropriation
Act.
Mr. Speaker, American public lands, especially National Parks, have
been serving as the backdrop for many of Hollywood's most famous and
profitable productions, including such films as ``Indiana Jones and the
Last Crusade,'' ``Forrest Gump,'' ``Star Wars'' and ``Butch Cassidy and
the Sundance Kid.'' Neither the National Park Service nor the Fish and
Wildlife Service collected a dime from any of these movies because they
are prohibited from establishing fair and reasonable fees from
commercial film companies for the use of these lands. H.R. 2993 would
remedy this problem while also making the commercial filming fee
available directly to the unit involved in the film production.
Mr. Speaker, this is a much needed bill which returns a fair profit
to the Federal Government for the use of many of our national
treasures. I strongly urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2993.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
(Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA asked and was given permission to revise and extend
his remarks.)
Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Utah, the
chairman of our Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands of the
Committee on Resources for his management of this legislation, and in
particular I want to commend the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley)
for his sponsorship of this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, this legislation provides for the collection of fees for
the making of motion pictures, television productions and sound tracks
in the National Park System and the National Wildlife Refuge System. We
should be charging appropriate commercial fees for the use of national
parks and refuges, especially when such fees have a long established
use on public lands and national forests. The regulation prohibiting
movie and television fees for parks and refuges appears to have long
outlived any usefulness it may have ever had.
Subsequent to our hearing, several meetings and discussions have been
held among our staffs, the representatives of the Department of the
Interior, the film industry, and other interested parties. I believe
these talks were very fruitful and productive.
As a result of these discussions, Mr. Speaker, the Committee on
Resources approved the amendment in the nature of a substitute to 2993
and made several significant changes in this legislation. I believe
those changes improve the bill, and I will also note that the bill we
are sending to the floor today includes one additional change requested
by the administration that is consistent with what we are trying to
achieve by the provisions of this bill.
Mr. Speaker, everyone agrees that there should be fair and reasonable
fees for the use of public resources for filming. I am greatly
encouraged by the bipartisan manner in which legislative agreement was
reached on this important issue. I support this bill and I urge my
colleagues to do the same.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the
gentleman from California (Mr. Hefley), the author of the bill, who has
done great work on this particular legislation.
Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this
time.
Mr. Speaker, I would suspect that most Americans got their first
taste of the West through the classic westerns of John Ford, and most
of those films were made on public land. Mr. Ford paid a standard fee
for the use of those lands, but for the past 50 years, for reasons that
no one can really explain, the Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife
Service have been forbidden from collecting fees for commercial
filming. The bill before us attempts to correct this inequity.
H.R. 2993 directs the Secretary of the Interior to develop a uniform
policy to collect fees for most commercial filming on lands
administered by the Interior Department agencies.
The bill directs that the Secretary require that these fees provide a
fair return to the government, and that said fees shall not be less
than the direct and indirect costs to the government for processing fee
applications and for the use of the land and facilities.
The bill also directs development of a fee schedule to be based on
such factors as the number of people on the site, duration of their
stay, surface disturbances and the use of special areas.
The policy exempts from fees bona fide newsreel or news television
productions, and most still photographers, save for those who use
models and actors and sets and props, and those that would result in
either damage to resources or a significant disruption to normal
visitor uses.
The language before us addresses concerns raised by the Justice
Department and has been cleared with the minority.
Finally, the bill directs the revenues from this policy to be used in
accordance with the existing fee demo program.
This bill is the product of a great deal of cooperation between both
sides of the aisle on the Committee on Resources. In fact, I think it
is an example of how most of the bills that we have in the Committee on
Resources should come out. We worked very hard to make this bipartisan.
We worked with the Department of the Interior and we worked with the
motion picture industry.
[[Page H7760]]
We tried to balance the film industry's need for certainty with the
Interior's need for flexibility, and I think we have struck that
balance. The film industry wants a certainty. They do not want an
arbitrary kind of thing where they never know. And, in fact, if there
is an arbitrary approach to it, more and more they will go offshore
somewhere. They will go to Australia. They will go other places. There
are other pretty places in the world they can go to film movies. They
will go somewhere else to do it if they do not have a degree of
certainty.
I will not pretend this bill is a cure-all for all of our public land
needs but it is a start. It will help. It is an equity thing. Even the
film industry thinks that it should pay a reasonable fee for using the
public lands.
So this is one of those rare bills where I think everyone has the
chance to come out a winner and, therefore, I urge its adoption. I do
not believe there is any objection to this. I think we have worked out
the kinks and I think it will work very well for us. Again, I would
repeat, Mr. Speaker, I urge its adoption.
Mr. HANSEN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for 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 Utah (Mr. Hansen) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 2993, as amended.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor
thereof) the rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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