[House Report 108-669]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
108th Congress Report
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
2d Session 108-669
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USE OF CABINS IN THE MINERAL KING VALLEY
_______
September 8, 2004.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on
the State of the Union and ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Pombo, from the Committee on Resources, submitted the following
R E P O R T
together with
DISSENTING VIEWS
[To accompany H.R. 4508]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Resources, to whom was referred the bill
(H.R. 4508) to amend the National Parks and Recreation Act of
1978 to require the Secretary to permit continued use and
occupancy of certain privately owned cabins in the Mineral King
Valley in the Sequoia National Park, having considered the
same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend
that the bill do pass.
Purpose of the Bill
The purpose of H.R. 4508 is to amend the National Parks and
Recreation Act of 1978 to require the Secretary to permit
continued use and occupancy of certain privately owned cabins
in the Mineral King Valley in the Sequoia National Park.
Background and Need for Legislation
The National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978 which took
the Mineral King Valley out of the Sequoia National Game refuge
and brought it into the Sequoia National Park did so for the
primary purpose of protecting the development from skiing
facilities. The Mineral King community contains approximately
66 privately owned cabins. In 1978, owners who signed an
agreement with the National Parks Service (NPS) were able to
renew their permits annually. The agreement stated that owners
would be allowed to retain their cabin for themselves or their
successors for twenty-five years or until death, whichever is
later.
The NPS has stopped renewing permits and will soon acquire
all cabins upon the death of the owners who held them in 1978.
Although the General Management Plan for the Sequoia National
Park acknowledges that the Mineral King community has been
placed on the National Register of Historic Places, nowhere
does it recognize the need for preservation of the cabins as a
part of the community. The concern has been raised that by
shifting ownership from the private sector to the NPS, the
cabins will eventually fall into disrepair and need to be
removed, inevitably destroying part of the community's unique
history. This has been the case for several cabins which has
passed to the NPS.
H.R. 4508 will allow the cabins to be retained by their
current owners and passed down to their heirs and assigns in
perpetuity.
Committee Action
H.R. 4508 was introduced on June 3, 2004, by Congressman
Devon Nunes (R-CA). The bill was referred to the Committee on
Resources, and within the Committee to the Subcommittee on
National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands. On July 14, 2004,
the Full Committee met to consider the bill. The Subcommittee
on National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands was discharged
from further consideration of the bill by unanimous consent. No
amendments were offered and the bill was ordered favorably
reported to the House of Representatives by voice vote.
During the 104th Congress, a similar bill, H.R. 3534, was
ordered reported by the Committee on Resources by voice vote.
Committee Oversight Findings and Recommendations
Regarding clause 2(b)(1) of rule X and clause 3(c)(1) of
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the
Committee on Resources' oversight findings and recommendations
are reflected in the body of this report.
Constitutional Authority Statement
Article I, section 8 and Article IV, section 3 of the
Constitution of the United States grants Congress the authority
to enact this bill.
Compliance With House Rule XIII
1. Cost of Legislation. Clause 3(d)(2) of rule XIII of the
Rules of the House of Representatives requires an estimate and
a comparison by the Committee of the costs which would be
incurred in carrying out this bill. However, clause 3(d)(3)(B)
of that rule provides that this requirement does not apply when
the Committee has included in its report a timely submitted
cost estimate of the bill prepared by the Director of the
Congressional Budget Office under section 402 of the
Congressional Budget Act of 1974.
2. Congressional Budget Act. As required by clause 3(c)(2)
of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and
section 308(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, this
bill does not contain any new budget authority, spending
authority, credit authority, or an increase or decrease in tax
expenditures.
3. General Performance Goals and Objectives. This bill does
not authorize funding and therefore, clause 3(c)(4) of rule
XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives does not
apply.
4. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate. Under clause
3(c)(3) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of
Representatives and section 403 of the Congressional Budget Act
of 1974, the Committee has received the following cost estimate
for this bill from the Director of the Congressional Budget
Office:
U.S. Congress,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, August 6, 2004.
Hon. Richard W. Pombo,
Chairman, Committee on Resources,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 4508, a bill to a
bill to amend the National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978 to
require the Secretary to permit continued use and occupancy of
certain privately owned cabins in the Mineral King Valley in
the Sequoia National Park.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Deborah Reis.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Robinson
(For Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Director).
Enclosure.
H.R. 4508--A bill to amend the National Parks and Recreation Act of
1978 to require the Secretary to permit continued use and
occupancy of certain privately owned cabins in the Mineral King
Valley in the Sequoia National Park
H.R. 4508 would eliminate certain restrictions on the
occupancy of about 65 cabins located in the Mineral King Valley
addition of the Sequoia National Park. Specifically, the bill
would remove existing limits on the right of use and occupancy
granted to the owners (and their successors) of cabins
purchased by the National Park Service (NPS) after the valley
was added to the park in 1978. In addition, the bill would
require the NPS to issue or renew certain special-use permits
or leases on other cabins that were covered by various
occupancy agreements at the time that the agency assumed
jurisdiction of the valley from the Forest Service. CBO
estimates that enacting these changes would have no significant
impact on the federal budget.
The bill contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act and
would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
Under current law, the previous owners (and their
successors) of cabins in the Mineral King Valley that were
purchased by the NPS were granted a right of use and occupancy
in exchange for a reduction in the price of their property.
That right expires at the end of 25 years or with the death of
the original owner or spouse.
In addition, current law allows persons who owned or leased
cabins on land that was transferred to the park from the Forest
Service to continue to occupy that property (unless such
occupancy is incompatible with park purposes) until their
deaths. Five-year renewable permits or leases for those cabins
may only be issued to the original property-owner or lessee of
record at the time the property was transferred to the NPS. The
NPS currently charges less than $1,000 a year for such leases
or permits (collecting a total of less than $1000,000 annually)
and spends about half of that amount on administrative
expenses.
Few if any occupancy agreements are still in effect on
cabins purchased by the NPS in 1978, and extending those
agreements would have no budgetary impact because such
occupants do not pay any fees for the use of these cabins.
For those cabins originally occupied under agreements with
the Forest Service, the NPS has generally stopped issuing five-
year renewals if the original lessees or permit-holders have
died. (The agency has been issuing annual permits in some
cases.) Once an agreement has expired on a cabin, the structure
may be left standing (and unoccupied), be demolished, or be
restored and leased out at fair market value. Proceeds from
such fair-market-value leases are available to the agency to
spend without appropriation action.
If H.R. 4508 is enacted, the NPS would have to allow the
heirs or successors of the original permit-holders or lessees
to occupy the Mineral King cabins in perpetuity. CBO estimates
that this outcome would have no significant impact on the
federal budget. For cabins that would be demolished or left
empty in the absence of legislation, we estimate that enacting
the bill would increase net receipts by less than $50,000 a
year. For cabins that might otherwise be refurbished and leased
at market value, renewing the existing agreements could keep
the NPS from executing more lucrative agreements. Any amounts
that could have been collected from such rental agreements,
however, would have been spent without appropriation action.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Deborah Reis.
This estimate was approved by Robert A. Sunshine, Assistant
Director for Budget Analysis.
Compliance With Public Law 104-4
This bill contains no unfunded mandates.
Preemption of State, Local or Tribal Law
This bill is not intended to preempt any State, local or
tribal law.
Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported
In compliance with clause 3(e) of rule XIII of the Rules of
the House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by
the bill, as reported, are shown as follows (existing law
proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black brackets, new
matter is printed in italic, existing law in which no change is
proposed is shown in roman):
SECTION 314 OF THE NATIONAL PARKS AND RECREATION ACT OF 1978
ADDITION OF MINERAL KING VALLEY TO SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK
Sec. 314 (a) * * *
* * * * * * *
(c)(1) * * *
(2) Where the private use of any property acquired pursuant
to this subsection would, in the judgment of the Secretary, be
compatible with the purposes of this section, the Secretary
may, as a condition of such acquisition, permit the owner or
owners of such property to retain for themselves and their
successors or assigns rights of use and occupancy. [Such rights
of use and occupancy shall be for not more than twenty-five
years or for a term ending at the death of the owner or his or
her spouse, whichever is later.] The owner shall reserve such
rights and elect the term to be reserved on the date of
acquisition of the property. Except for so much of the property
as is donated, the Secretary shall pay to the owner the fair
market value of the property on the date of its acquisition,
less the fair market value on that date of the right retained
by the owner.
* * * * * * *
(d)(1) * * *
(2)(A) * * *
(B) In the case of a lease or permit which is continued under
subparagraph (A), upon notice to the Secretary by the lessee or
permittee of his intention to seek renewal or extension of such
lease or permit, the lease or permit shall be reviewed by the
Secretary, and may be renewed or extended for an additional
period of five years. Any such lease or permit shall be
reviewed at the end of such renewal or extension period and may
also be renewed or extended in the same manner for additional
five-year periods thereafter. Any renewals or extensions of
leases or permits shall be granted only to those persons who
were lessees or permittees of record on the date of enactment
of this Act and to their heirs, successors, and assigns, and
any such lease or permit shall provide that the lease or permit
may be terminated by the Secretary at any time if the Secretary
determines that such lease or permit is incompatible with the
administration of the park pursuant to this section or that the
land is needed for park purposes.
* * * * * * *
DISSENTING VIEWS
H.R. 4508 is special interest legislation that would
subvert the public interest for the benefit of a few select
private parties. It was bad legislation eight years ago and it
is bad legislation today. For those members not here in 1996
and for others who had long since forgotten this matter, a
little history is in order.
Back in the 1970's, the 67 cabins covered by H.R. 4508 were
slated for removal as part of a plain to put a Disney Ski
Resort on national forest lands in Mineral King Valley. The
proposed ski resort was very controversial and as a result
legislation was introduced and signed into law in 1978 that
transferred Mineral King Valley and the cabin permits to the
administration of the National Park Service as part of Sequoia
National Park.
The law was very clear on the issue of these cabin permits
for the use of public land in Mineral King Valley. The
extension of cabin permits was to only be for permittees of
record as of the date on enactment. No one was tricked and no
one was blind sided. In fact, earlier versions of that 1978
legislation had more restrictive terms for cabin permits but
was amended to grant existing permittees potential lifetime use
of these national park lands.
In the 104th Congress legislation was introduced to
accomplish the same thing that H.R. 4508 seeks to do today.
That legislation was very controversial. We don't often receive
veto threats on legislation in the Resources Committee but we
did receive a veto threat from the Administration on that bill.
In hearings before the Resources Committee the sponsor of the
1978 legislation and the Congressman who represented the area
at that time, John Krebs, vigorously protested the attempt to
overturn the clear terms of the law. That legislative attempt
died in 1996 only to arise again today.
What generated so much concern from the Administration,
former Representative Krebs, and many others was that the cabin
permittees were then and are again today attempting to gain for
themselves and their heirs the exclusive use of publicly owned
national park lands in perpetuity. There are definite winners
and losers here. The winners are the cabin permittees and their
heirs. The losers are the public.
Mineral King is a small valley prone to avalanches. Because
of this there is a limited amount of usable land and the cabin
permittees monopolize most of the limited space available for
recreational development.
The National Park Service has reported that on many summer
weekends overnight visitors to the valley had to be turned away
because the NPS campground was full and other available sites
were occupied by the cabins. So, it is really the public who is
being evicted from the valley.
The National Park Service has taken an extra step to work
with permittees. Under the terms of the 1978 Act, a number of
cabin permits have expired. But rather than enforcing the law,
the NPS has allowed several expired permits to be renewed on a
yearly basis while it develops a new plan for public use of the
valley. In fact, options for that plan were put out for public
comment just recently but would be negated by H.R. 4508.
Permits are privileges, not rights. A reasonable deal was
made in 1978. Now those cabins permittees and their heirs want
to break that deal for their exclusive benefit. The public is
the loser under H.R. 4508. We should be looking out for the
public interest, not a special interest and as such we oppose
H.R. 4508.
Nick Rahall.
George Miller.
Edward J. Markey.
Mark Udall.
Jay Inslee.