[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 27 (Tuesday, February 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S1271]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 S. 47

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I am pleased that today the Senate 
passed S. 47, a bipartisan package of conservation and natural 
resources bills that will help preserve irreplaceable historic sites 
and conserve unique wildlife throughout my State of Maryland.
  I worked with my counterpart, the junior Senator from Maryland, to 
secure multiple provisions in the bill recognizing the historical and 
cultural significance of great places, including Baltimore's President 
Street Station, the oldest surviving urban railroad terminal in 
America, as well as Public School 103, the elementary school where 
Justice Thurgood Marshall first learned many of the lessons that would 
make him a legendary lawyer and American jurist.
  For years, we have worked to move Justice Marshall's elementary 
school and President Street Station closer to improved, permanent 
preservation so that current and future generations can learn the facts 
about Baltimore's role in the American Civil War and in the Civil 
Rights movement. In addition, the public lands package includes 
permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, 
which has been a vital tool for securing public access in the 
Chesapeake Bay Watershed through the creation of treasured parks, 
refuges, community green spaces, battlefields, and habitat conservation 
and restoration projects.
  S. 47 also includes reauthorization of the Neotropical Migratory Bird 
Conservation Act, which promotes long-term conservation, education, 
research, monitoring, and habitat protection activities for more than 
380 species of migratory birds, including Maryland's State bird, the 
Baltimore Oriole.
  The Baltimore Oriole and other migratory birds are critical 
indicators of the health of Maryland's ecosystems, agriculture, and 
outdoor recreation economy.
  I am also delighted the package includes the Appalachian Forest 
National Heritage Area Act, legislation I cosponsored led by my 
colleagues in the Senate delegation from West Virginia. This bipartisan 
legislation proposes to protect forest management heritage in portions 
of West Virginia, as well as two counties in western Maryland, and to 
develop interpretive and recreational themes. This will bring visitors 
and small business development to this remarkable region.
  No compromise is perfect, but this package will advance priorities in 
every corner of my State that have been years in the making. I applaud 
Senate passage of this landmark legislation.

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