[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 139 (Wednesday, December 8, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12018-S12019]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        COMMEMORATING THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE WILDERNESS ACT

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Energy and 
Natural Resources Committee be discharged from further consideration of 
S. Res. 387 and that the Senate then proceed to its immediate 
consideration.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The clerk 
will report the resolution by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 387) commemorating the 40th 
     anniversary of the Wilderness Act.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution 
and the amendment to the preamble be considered and agreed to, the 
preamble, as amended, be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid 
upon the table, and any statement relating to the resolution be printed 
in the Record, with the above occurring with no intervening action.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 387) was agreed to.
  The amendment (No. 4087) was agreed to, as follows:


                           Amendment No. 4087

    (Purpose: To add additional history relating to the wilderness)

       Strike the preamble and insert the following:
       Whereas September 3, 2004, marked the 40th Anniversary of 
     the enactment of the Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq.), 
     which gave to the people of the United States an enduring 
     resource of natural heritage as part of the National 
     Wilderness Preservation System;
       Whereas American explorers Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, 
     and Sergeant York, and Native American guide Sacajawea helped 
     the United States recognize the expanse of American 
     wilderness;
       Whereas Native American leaders such as Kiowa Chief 
     Santanta, Chief Luther Standing Bear, and Chief Seattle 
     recognized that the land involved was not in fact ``wild'', 
     but existed as the land should be;
       Whereas great American writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, 
     Mary Austin, Henry David Thoreau, George Perkins Marsh, 
     Isabella L. Bird, and John Muir joined poets like William 
     Cullen Bryant, and painters such as Thomas Cole, Frederic 
     Church, Frederic Remington, Albert Bierstadt, Georgia 
     O'Keefe, and Thomas Moran to define the United States' 
     distinct cultural value of wild nature and unique concept of 
     wilderness;
       Whereas national leaders such as President Theodore 
     Roosevelt reveled in outdoor pursuits and sought diligently 
     to preserve those opportunities for molding individual 
     character, shaping a nation's destiny, striving for balance, 
     and ensuring the wisest use of natural resources, to provide 
     the greatest good for the greatest many;

[[Page S12019]]

       Whereas luminaries in the conservation movement, such as 
     scientist Aldo Leopold, forester Bob Marshall, writer Howard 
     Zahniser, teacher Sigurd Olson, biologists Olaus, Margaret 
     (Mardy), and Adolph Murie, conservation leader Celia Hunter, 
     and conservationist David Brower believed that the people of 
     the United States could have the boldness to project into the 
     eternity of the future some of the wilderness that has come 
     from the eternity of the past;
       Whereas Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, a Democrat from 
     Minnesota, and Representative John Saylor, a Republican from 
     Pennsylvania, originally introduced the legislation with 
     strong bipartisan support in both bodies of Congress;
       Whereas with the help of their colleagues, including 
     cosponsors Gaylord Nelson, William Proxmire, Clinton P. 
     Anderson, and Henry ``Scoop'' M. Jackson, and other 
     conservation allies, including Secretary of the Interior 
     Stewart L. Udall and Representative Morris K. Udall, Senator 
     Humphrey and Representative Saylor toiled 8 years to secure 
     nearly unanimous passage of the legislation, 78 to 8 in the 
     Senate, and 373 to 1 in the House of Representatives;
       Whereas critical support in the Senate for the Wilderness 
     Act came from 3 Senators who still serve in the Senate as of 
     2004: Senator Robert C. Byrd, Senator Daniel Inouye, and 
     Senator Edward M. Kennedy;
       Whereas President John F. Kennedy, who came into office in 
     1961 with enactment of wilderness legislation part of his 
     administration's agenda, was assassinated before he could 
     sign a bill into law;
       Whereas 4 wilderness champions, Aldo Leopold, Olaus Murie, 
     Bob Marshall, and Howard Zahniser, sadly, also passed away 
     before seeing the fruits of their labors ratified by Congress 
     and sent to the President;
       Whereas President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the 
     Wilderness Act in the Rose Garden on September 3, 1964, 
     establishing a system of wilderness heritage as President 
     Kennedy and the conservation community had so ardently 
     envisioned and eloquently articulated;
       Whereas now, as a consequence of wide popular support, the 
     people of the United States have a system of places wild and 
     free for the permanent good of the whole people of this great 
     Nation;
       Whereas over the past 40 years the system for protecting an 
     enduring resource of wilderness has been built upon by 
     subsequent Presidents, successive leaders of Congress, and 
     experts in the land managing agencies within the Departments 
     of the Interior and Agriculture;
       Whereas today that system is 10 times larger than when 
     first established;
       Whereas the Wilderness Act instituted an unambiguous 
     national policy to recognize the natural heritage of the 
     United States as a resource of value and to protect that 
     wilderness for future generations to use and enjoy as 
     previous and current generations have had the opportunity to 
     do;
       Whereas since 1964, when the first 9,000,000 acres of 
     wilderness were included by Congress, more than 110 
     additional laws have been passed to build the National 
     Wilderness Preservation System to its current size of 
     106,000,000 acres;
       Whereas wild places protected in perpetuity can currently 
     be found and enjoyed in 44 of the Nation's 50 States;
       Whereas this wealth of the heritage of the United States 
     can be seen today from Alaska to Florida in over 650 units, 
     from Fire Island in New York's Long Island South Shore and 
     Ohio's West Sister Island in Lake Erie, to far larger Mojave 
     in eastern California and Idaho's River of No Return;
       Whereas President Gerald R. Ford stated that the National 
     Wilderness Preservation System ``serves a basic need of all 
     Americans, even those who may never visit a wilderness area--
     the preservation of a vital element of our natural heritage'' 
     and that, ``wilderness preservation ensures that a central 
     facet of our Nation can still be realized, not just 
     remembered''; and
       Whereas President Gerald R. Ford has joined with President 
     Jimmy Carter and more than 100 other prominent United States 
     citizens as honored members of Americans for Wilderness, a 
     committee formed to celebrate this national achievement: Now, 
     therefore, be it

  The preamble, as amended, was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:
  (The resolution will be printed in a future edition of the Record.)

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