[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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