[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 45 (Tuesday, March 22, 2016)]
[House]
[Pages H1522-H1523]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     AMENDMENT TO COLTSVILLE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK DONATION SITE

  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 2857) to facilitate the addition of park administration at 
the Coltsville National Historical Park, and for other purposes, as 
amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 2857

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. AMENDMENT TO COLTSVILLE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK 
                   DONATION SITE.

       Section 3032(b) of Public Law 113-291 (16 U.S.C. 410qqq) is 
     amended--
       (1) in paragraph (2)(B), by striking ``East Armory'' and 
     inserting ``Colt Armory Complex''; and
       (2) by adding at the end the following:
       ``(4) Additional administrative conditions.--No non-Federal 
     property may be included in the park without the written 
     consent of the owner. The establishment of the park or the 
     management of the park shall not be construed to create 
     buffer zones outside of the park. That activities or uses can 
     be seen, heard or detected from areas within the park shall 
     not preclude, limit, control, regulate, or determine the 
     conduct or management of activities or uses outside of the 
     park.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
California (Mr. McClintock) and the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. 
Tsongas) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California.


                             General Leave

  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2857, introduced by Representative John Larson of 
Connecticut, modifies a condition that the Park Service acquire 10,000 
square feet of space in East Armory to allow the NPS to acquire that 
space within any part of the Colt Armory Complex in Hartford, 
Connecticut.
  Coltsville was the home of Samuel Colt's industrial enterprise, the 
Colt Firearms Company. In Hartford, Samuel Colt developed the use of 
the assembly line and highly mechanized techniques. Colt Manufacturing 
not only transformed the firearms industry, but was a major contributor 
to the industrial revolution by pioneering the use of interchangeable 
parts and precision manufacturing.
  This small modification to current law would provide the Park Service 
flexibility in selecting a location for park administrative offices and 
visitor services at the Coltsville site. I am grateful for Mr. Larson's 
hard work to establish the Coltsville Historical Park, and urge my 
colleagues to vote in favor of its passage today.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. TSONGAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Thanks to the leadership and hard work of my colleague, 
Representative Larson of Connecticut, Congress established the 
Coltsville National Historical Park at the end of 2014.
  The law that established the park authorized the National Park 
Service to utilize a 10,000 square foot building known as the East 
Armory for the purposes of park administration. However, during the 
planning phase for establishing this new park, local stakeholders and 
the Park Service have determined that the Colt Armory Complex is better 
suited for this purpose. This bill simply makes that change and 
authorizes the use of the Colt Armory Complex.
  I support this simple fix to the enabling legislation that responds 
to the on-the-ground dynamics of this particular park, and I want to 
thank the majority and my colleagues on the Natural Resources Committee 
for expedited review of this legislation.
  I reserve the balance of my time.

                              {time}  1345

  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. TSONGAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson), my distinguished colleague.
  Mr. LARSON of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague 
from Massachusetts for yielding this time. And I say, with a note of 
pride, that Lowell, Massachusetts, served and continues to serve as a 
model for urban national parks upon which we based Coltsville becoming 
a national historic park.
  I want to thank Chairman McClintock also for his words. Both he and 
Representative Tsongas have outlined what this does. This has been 
great work by a number of people on this committee in a nonpartisan 
way.
  I would just add, Mr. Speaker, that in Chairman McClintock's brief 
history of Coltsville, that Samuel Colt died in 1862, and not many 
people realize this. So it was actually Elizabeth Colt, though she 
could not vote at the time, who was in charge of what was one of the 
top five corporations in America at that time.
  As the chairman alluded to, it was, as a lot of New England was, the 
center of the industrial revolution. It is also where Mr. Ford came to 
study and looked at the assembly line. And Pratt & Whitney did 
internships, the famous Pratt & Whitney aircraft company, and it 
spawned the bicycle, the automobile, and the typewriter, all of which 
came from the great city of Hartford at the time.
  I want to thank the neighborhood for the collaborative effort, but 
especially the Governor of the State, Governor Malloy, for his hard 
work; former-Mayor Segarra; Mayor Luke Bronin, the current mayor; Park 
Superintendent James Woolsey, who, as Representative Tsongas rightly 
pointed out, when they went to the site and looked at the spectacular 
site, in the review, realized that there was a better way to facilitate 
people seeing it and locating a section in this historic brownstone 
area, which this technical change in the legislation allows them to do.
  As Representative Tsongas said, this was done in an expedited manner, 
so I

[[Page H1523]]

greatly appreciate the work of the committee on this, and the staff of 
the committee as well.
  Chairman Bishop has been a strong supporter of this from the start 
and, I daresay, as we struggled to get this legislation passed for 
almost a decade, it was his leadership and that of Ranking Member 
Grijalva that brought this to fruition.
  So this is, again, yet another demonstration of what can happen when 
everybody pulls together. And certainly, on the 100th anniversary of 
our National Park Service, to preserve this historic landmark and to do 
it in a manner that is consistent with making sure that our national 
treasures here, whether they be our enormous national parks in the West 
or on the East Coast, a number of our treasures, historic treasures.
  I would note that, at the confluence of a national historic river, a 
Blueways and Greenways national historic endeavor, that this national 
park is located. It is that confluence and the work of this committee 
in recognizing the historic achievement of Samuel and Elizabeth Colt 
that we are so dearly proud of, not only in Hartford, but across this 
Nation.
  I thank, again, Chairman McClintock, and I want to thank, again, my 
dear friend, the ranking member, Ms. Tsongas.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I would only add that I look forward to 
working with my colleagues across the aisle on those reforms to restore 
the free market principles that made America the manufacturing capital 
of the world, so that those great days that gave birth to success 
stories like Colt and the prosperity they meant for our Nation can be 
reproduced in this generation.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. TSONGAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to commend this 
measure to the House and ask for its adoption.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 2857, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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