[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 167 (Wednesday, October 31, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2294-E2295]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         GOLF COURSE PRESERVATION AND MODERNIZATION ACT OF 2007

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 31, 2007

  Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, today, I introduce the Golf Course 
Preservation and Modernization Act to renovate and modernize the three 
National Park Service, NPS, golf courses in the District of Columbia. 
Several years of research, investigation and consulting on ways to 
improve these courses demonstrate this bill is necessary to turn around 
the deterioration of these unique and valuable Federal assets. Langston 
Golf Course, Rock Creek Golf Course, and East Potomac Golf Course are 
in desperate need of capital investment to maintain and preserve their 
historic features and to reverse decades of deterioration.
  East Potomac Golf Course was built in 1920 and included three courses 
that accommodated all levels of play, with an 18-hole tournament level 
course and two nine-hole practice courses. East Potomac was initially 
segregated, with African Americans permitted to play only on Mondays. 
The course was desegregated in 1941 by the Secretary of the Interior, 
Harold Ickes, following pressure from an African American women golfers 
club, the Wake Robin Golf Club. Rock Creek Golf Course opened in 1923 
as a nine-hole golf course and an additional nine holes were added to 
make Rock Creek an 18-hole tournament level course in 1926. Langston 
Golf Course opened in 1939 as a segregated golf facility for African 
Americans and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. 
Langston was the home course to the Royal Golf Club and the Wake Robin 
Golf Club, the Nation's first clubs for African American men and women 
golfers respectively. Langston was named for John Mercer Langston, the 
first African American Congressman from Virginia elected in 1888. 
Originally a nine-hole course, Langston's expansion to an 18-hole 
course began in 1955, but was not completed until the mid-1980s.
  The courses were built and have been administered by the NPS since 
the early 20th century for the enjoyment of the general public. 
However, despite their best efforts, NPS has had a constant struggle to 
maintain the courses. None has been modernized and all three courses 
have fallen into disrepair and lack the amenities necessary to serve 
the public today. As a result, they are underused considering their 
value to the public.

  NPS was created by Congress to ``. . . conserve the scenery and the 
natural and historical objects and the wild life therein, and to 
provide for the enjoyment of the same in such a manner and by such 
means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future 
generations.'' (16 U.S.C. 1) However, NPS's own backlog of repairs, its 
chronic funding limitations, and the continuing use of concession 
contracts that are inappropriate for the unique capital investment 
required for golf courses militate against appropriate maintenance, 
historic preservation and the NPS mission ``to leave them unimpaired 
for the public enjoyment.'' This bill will restore the original intent 
of Congress, consistent with this important NPS mission.
  The three courses together constitute an undervalued public asset 
that, if appropriately funded, could be renovated and modernized, 
facilitating affordable recreation, attracting significantly more 
golfers, and perhaps producing new revenue for the United States 
Treasury. Unlike other NPS facilities, golf courses require unique and 
continuing significant capital investment to keep them not only 
maintained but operational. As a result for nearly 100

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years, the courses have had problems associated with upkeep and 
insufficient capital investment. Without a ready source for capital 
investment, apart from appropriations, NPS has continuously struggled 
to manage and maintain each of these courses since their inception. 
There is no prospect that the necessary Federal funds for capital 
investment and improvement of golf will be available today or in the 
future. Moreover, the current fee to play at the golf courses, as 
established in the concessions contract process, must remain affordable 
and cannot generate sufficient revenue for NPS or the concessioners to 
keep the courses properly maintained, or to make the capital investment 
required for a golf course today. In fact, NPS owes millions of dollars 
to the concessioner of the golf courses for necessary improvements.
  General Services Administration land and real estate professionals 
and other experts advise that the best option consistent with Federal 
law and practices is to create a long-term ground lease that bundles 
all three of the courses into a single contract and then to request 
proposals that allow for response with ideas and alternatives for 
modernization and maintenance consistent with anticipated use and 
affordability. This bill requires that historic features of the courses 
be preserved and that two of the three courses remain affordable to the 
general public.
  The confines of Federal concession law inhibited NPS and the 
concessioner from making improvements to the courses because Federal 
concession laws are incompatible with golf course operations. 
Historically, the constrictions of NPS concessions law have been a 
direct cause of disrepair and capital disinvestment, reducing the 
quality of play and jeopardizing the historic preservation of the 
courses. However, the NPS is attempting to join two of the three golf 
courses together for the next 7 years under a proposed concession 
contract that was issued on October 23, 2007. The draft contract 
requires only that the next concessioner be able to perform routine 
repair and maintenance consistent with NPS practice and the limits 
imposed by concession law. The draft contract does not and could not 
impose any requirement that capital improvements be made to the 
courses, usually guaranteeing that these courses will stay in the same 
poor condition until 2015. East Potomac was excluded from the proposed 
concession contract because its concession contract expires next year, 
not for any reason associated with maintaining and improving the 
courses for public use. This separates East Potomac, the only 
financially viable golf course from Langston and Rock Creek, the two 
that need subsidy for their operations. The effect will leave Langston 
and Rock Creek worse off then they are today.

  This bill would exempt these golf courses from concession law and 
bind the three courses into one contract. This approach applies another 
vehicle commonly used by the Federal Government to allow for more 
creative solutions consistent with the NPS mission to preserve general 
public access and preserve the historic qualities of the courses. The 
single long-term ground lease for all three courses, designed outside 
of the constraints of concession law, provided by this bill would 
encourage private investment in these courses, improve the quality of 
the courses, ensure affordable play, and preserve their historic 
nature.
  I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

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