[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 822]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                     PROMOTING LIVABLE COMMUNITIES

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, the issue of the livable communities 
will be one of the dominant themes in the year 2000 election.
  It is not altogether clear to me that the pollsters, pundits, and 
consultants fully understand the depth of this issue and what it means 
to American families.
  The reason it will be an issue is not because it is being driven by 
the national level, although I do appreciate the leadership of the 
administration and Vice President Gore. This is an issue that is being 
driven from the grassroots.
  Many of us are aware that in 1998 there were over 240 State and local 
ballot measures nationwide that dealt with issues of open space, land 
use planning, and environmental protection and transportation.
  Seventy-two percent of these measures passed involving spending of 
over $7.5 billion; even in the relatively quiet so-called off year of 
1999, the drumbeat continued. There were 139 ballot measures with a 77 
percent approval rating.
  The media coverage of the term ``smart growth,'' which is probably 
the best proxy of livable communities, rose from 101 citations in 1996 
to over 2,700 citations in 1999.
  Why is this?
  People know that the past patterns of development are simply not 
sustainable. From 1992 to 1997, we just learned a couple of weeks ago 
that over 16 million acres of farm and forest land were lost to 
development, an area larger than the State of West Virginia.
  Mr. Speaker, we as a Nation are sprawling faster than we increase in 
population. In the last 5 years, the population grew by 5 percent, 
while developed land area increased 18 percent. In fact, we are seeing 
communities around the country that are actually losing population, yet 
are gobbling up land at a 10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent rate in a 
decade. This means that wetlands in the United States are disappearing 
at a rate of 54,000 acres annually, despite our good intentions, 
despite some protections that are being built in.
  At the same time, we are becoming increasingly dependent on foreign 
oil. Petroleum prices have tripled in the last few months. Drivers in 
the Washington, D.C. metro area waste 116 gallons of fuel each year 
simply waiting in traffic.
  We know that we can do better than forcing the average commuter to 
spend more than 50 workdays a year behind the wheel of his or her car 
just to get to work.
  Livability does not have to be a casualty of gridlock in Washington, 
nor does it have to become a partisan issue. There is no reason we 
cannot embrace as a Congress some of the administration's specific 
recommendations for livable communities, in transportation funding, for 
better America bonds.
  We can as a Congress embrace the bipartisan legislation that is 
coming forward by the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) and 
the gentleman from Alaska (Chairman Young) for the Land and Water 
Conservation Fund. There is no reason that we cannot see the enactment 
of terrific legislation, if I do say so myself, the two-floods-and-you-
are-out of the taxpayer pocket that the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. 
Bereuter) and I are working on to reform our national flood insurance 
program, to help people and not promote and subsidize the degradation 
of our environment.
  Mr. Speaker, at a time when the public knows we can do a lot better, 
it is time for the Federal Government to be a full partner in that 
effort of promoting livable communities.
  I am looking forward to bringing to this floor proposals this year 
that will make our families safe, healthy, and economically secure, 
maybe something as radical as requiring the post office to obey the 
same land use, environmental and planning regulations as the rest of 
America.
  Promoting livable communities is not rocket science. It is definitely 
our job. I urge the Congress to take a bit of a break from some of what 
occupies our attention day in and day out and think about ways that we 
can make our families safer, healthier, more economically secure, while 
saving money and protecting the environment.

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