[Senate Report 109-314]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



                                                       Calendar No. 557
109th Congress                                                   Report
                                 SENATE
 2d Session                                                     109-314

======================================================================



 
    PRESERVATION OF JAPANESE AMERICAN WORLD WAR II CONFINEMENT SITES

                                _______
                                

                 July 31, 2006.--Ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

   Mr. Domenici, from the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, 
                        submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                          [To accompany 1492]

    The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was 
referred the Act (H.R. 1492) to provide for the preservation of 
the historic confinement sites where Japanese Americans were 
detained during World War II, and for other purposes, having 
considered the same, reports favorably thereon with amendments 
and recommends that the Act, as amended, do pass.
    The amendments are as follows:
    1. On page 2, strike lines 15 through 20 and insert the 
following
    ``(b) Grants.--
          ``(1) Criteria.--The Secretary, after consultation 
        with State, local, and tribal governments, other public 
        entities, educational institutions, and private 
        nonprofit organizations (including organizations 
        involved in the preservation of historic confinement 
        sites), shall develop criteria for making grants under 
        paragraph (2) to assist in carrying out subsection (a).
          ``(2) Provision of grants.--Not later than 180 days 
        after the date on which funds are made available to 
        carry out this Act, the Secretary shall, subject to the 
        availability of appropriations, make grants to the 
        entities described in paragraph (1) only in accordance 
        with the criteria developed under that paragraph''.
    2. On page 3, line 21, strike ``25 percent'' and insert 
``50 percent''.

                         PURPOSE OF THE MEASURE

    The purpose of H.R. 1492 is to direct the Secretary of the 
Interior to create a partnership and grant program within the 
National Park Service in order to identify, protect, and 
acquire locations where Japanese-Americans were confined during 
World War II.

                          BACKGROUND AND NEED

    H.R. 1492 seeks to preserve structures and locations 
associated with the unjust detention of Japanese-American 
citizens and resident aliens during World War II.
    During World War II, the United States confined tens of 
thousands of its Japanese-American citizens in relocation 
camps. The action was spurred by President Roosevelt's 
Executive Order 9066, signed in February, 1942, two months 
after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt's order 
gave the Secretary of War the authority to exclude ``any and 
all persons'' from areas of the country considered vital for 
national security. In response to the order, the War Department 
removed 113,000 people of Japanese ancestry, more than 2/3 of 
whom were American citizens, from their homes on the West Coast 
and relocated them to camps in the Nation's interior.
    Surprisingly, this unjust treatment did not dampen the 
devotion that many of the Japanese-Americans felt towards the 
United States. Thousands of young men from the camps signed up 
to fight in the U.S. Armed Forces. They distinguished 
themselves in combat. In fact, the 100th Battalion of the 442nd 
Regiment, a unit composed primarily of Japanese-Americans, 
became the most decorated unit of its size in American history.
    To date, two relocation camps have been protected as units 
of the National Park System: Manzanar National Historic Site 
(California) and Minidoka National Monument (Idaho), 
respectively.

                          LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

    H.R. 1492 was introduced by Representatives Bill Thomas, 
Matsui, and Honda on April 6, 2005 and passed by the House of 
Representatives on a voice vote on November 16, 2005.
    An identical bill, S. 1719, was introduced by Senators 
Inouye, Bennett, and Akaka on September 19, 2005. The 
Subcommittee on National Parks held a hearing on both S. 1719 
and H.R. 1492 on April 6, 2006. At the business meeting on May 
24, 2006, the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources ordered 
H.R. 1492, as amended, favorably reported.

                       COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS

    The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in open 
business session on May 24, 2006, by a unanimous voice vote of 
a quorum present, recommends that the Senate pass H.R. 1492, if 
amended as described herein.

                          COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS

    During consideration of H.R. 1492, the Committee adopted 
two amendments to H.R. 1492. One amendment would change the 
criteria for grants, requiring the Secretary to consult with a 
broad group of organizations involved in preserving historic 
confinement sites, instead of only the single organization 
named in the original bill. The other amendment would also make 
grants subject to the availability of funds and increase the 
required non-Federal match from 25 percent to 50 percent.

                      SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

    Section 1(a) directs the Secretary to establish, in 
partnership with other public and private entities, a 
preservation program to preserve historic confinement sites.
    Subsection (b) authorizes a program of grants to public and 
private organizations, to be administered by the Secretary of 
the Interior. Grant criteria must be developed in consultation 
with organizations involved in preserving historic confinement 
sites. These organizations include, but are not limited to, the 
Japanese American National Heritage Coalition; the Go For Broke 
Educational Foundation and the Go For Broke National Veterans 
Association; Japanese American Citizens League; Japanese 
American National Museum; Japanese American Veterans 
Association; National Asian Pacific American Bar Association; 
National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium; National 
Japanese American Historical Society; National Japanese 
American Memorial Foundation; National Japanese American 
Veterans Council; Organization of Chinese Americans; Amache 
Preservation Society; Committee to Change ``Jap'' Road, TX; 
Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project, WA; Denver 
Central Optimists; Colorado River Indian Tribes; Friends of 
California Civil Liberties Public Education Program; Gila 
Reunion Committee; Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation; Japanese 
American Service Committee, Chicago, IL; Japanese American 
Historical Society, San Diego, CA; Japanese Cultural Center of 
Hawai'i; Life Interrupted Program (Arkansas Camps); Nisei 
Farmers League, CA; Poston Restoration Project; Topaz Museum 
Board, UT; Tule Lake Preservation Committee; and Zavala County 
Historical Commission. The Secretary is required to begin 
providing grants no later than 180 days after funds are made 
available.
    Subsection (c) authorizes the acquisition of non-Federal 
property at four confinement sites: Jerome and Rohwer 
(Arkansas), Topaz (Utah), and Honouliuli (Hawai'i). This 
subsection declares that this Act is not a designation and will 
not affect private property.
    Subsection (d) requires a 50-percent non-Federal match for 
grants provided under subsection (1)(b) of this Act.
    Subsection (e) states that the sunset date for this Act 
would be 2 years after the last grant funds are spent.
    Section 2 defines terms.
    Section 3 stipulates that real property can be acquired 
only from willing sellers.

                   COST AND BUDGETARY CONSIDERATIONS

    The following estimate of the cost of this measure has been 
provided by the Congressional Budget Office:

H.R. 1492--An act to provide for the preservation of the historic 
        confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during 
        World War II, and for other purposes

    Summary: H.R. 1492 would direct the National Park Service 
(NPS) to provide grants to nonfederal entities to restore and 
preserve sites associated with the internment of Japanese 
Americans during World War II. The grants would be used for up 
to 50 percent of the costs of protecting significant sites, 
including those to identify, acquire, and interpret them. For 
this purpose, the act would authorize the appropriation of $38 
million. Assuming appropriation of the authorized amount, CBO 
estimates that implementing H.R. 1492 would cost $38 million 
over the 2007-2011 period.
    Enacting this legislation would not affect direct spending 
or revenues. H.R. 1492 contains no intergovernmental or 
private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates 
Reform Act (UMRA) and would impose no costs on state, local, or 
tribal governments.
    Estimated cost to the Federal Government: The estimated 
budgetary impact of H.R. 1492 is shown in the following table. 
The costs of this legislation fall within budget function 300 
(natural resources for environment). For this estimate, CBO 
assumes that the authorized amount would be appropriated over 
the next five years and paid to nonprofit organizations and 
other entities as needed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                       By fiscal year, in millions of dollars--
                                                                    --------------------------------------------
                                                                       2007     2008     2009     2010     2011
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  CHANGES IN SPENDING SUBJECT TO APPROPRIATION

Estimated Authorization Level......................................        6       10       10        8        4
Estimated Outlays..................................................        4       10       10        8        6
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Intergovernmental and private-sector impact: H.R. 1492 
contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as 
defined in UMRA and would impose no costs on state, local, or 
tribal governments.
    Previous CBO estimate: On May 24, 2005, CBO transmitted a 
cost estimate for H.R. 1492 as ordered reported by the House 
Committee on Resources on May 18, 2005. The two versions of the 
legislation are similar and the estimated costs over five years 
are the same. Our cost estimates reflect different assumptions 
about when the legislation would be enacted. (The previous CBO 
estimate assumed enactment near the start of fiscal year 2006; 
thus, it showed estimated costs beginning in 2006 instead of 
2007.)
    Estimate prepared by: Federal costs: Matthew Pickford; 
Impact on state, local, and tribal governments: Marjorie 
Miller; Impact on the private sector: Tyler Kruzich.
    Estimate approved by: Peter H. Fontaine, Deputy Assistant 
Director for Budget Analysis.

                      REGULATORY IMPACT EVALUATION

    In compliance with paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee makes the following 
evaluation of the regulatory impact which would be incurred in 
carrying out H.R. 1492. The bill is not a regulatory measure in 
the sense of imposing Government-established standards or 
significant economic responsibilities on private individuals 
and businesses.
    No personal information would be collected in administering 
the program. Therefore, there would be no impact on personal 
privacy.
    Little, if any, additional paperwork would result from the 
enactment of H.R. 1492, as ordered reported.

                        EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS

    The views of the Administration on H.R. 1492 were included 
in testimony received by the Committee at a hearing on the bill 
on April 6, 2006. This testimony follows:

  Statement of Sue Masica, Associate Director, National Park Service, 
                       Department of the Interior

    Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to appear 
before you to present the views of the Department of the 
Interior on S. 1719 and H.R. 1492, legislation to provide for 
the preservation of the historic confinement sites where 
Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. H.R. 1492 
was passed by the House on November 16, 2005.
    The Department recognizes the importance of taking steps to 
more fully preserve the history of the experience of Japanese 
Americans during World War II, when many were forcibly removed 
from their homes and sent to live at internment camps. However, 
we do not support the approach taken by S. 1719 and H.R. 1492 
to preserve this history. For many years, the Department has 
opposed legislation authorizing appropriations for grants for 
specified non-National Park Service projects. Many of these 
projects represent an important contribution to the 
preservation of our Nation's history, as would be the case with 
projects associated with the Japanese American internment 
camps. Each time such legislation is enacted and appropriations 
follow, it further reduces a limited amount of discretionary 
funds available to address the priority needs of our national 
parks and other programs administered by the National Park 
Service. With the emphasis we have placed on fulfilling our 
core mission of operating units of the National Park System and 
on the President's initiative to reduce the deferred 
maintenance backlog, it has become more important than ever to 
avoid authorizing funding for non-National Park Service 
projects that would draw funds from the National Park Service's 
budget.
    S. 1719 and H.R. 1492, which contain identical provisions, 
would require the Secretary of the Interior to establish a 
program within the National Park Service to administer grants 
to public and private entities to protect, restore, interpret, 
acquire and take other actions with respect to the ten 
internment camps and other historically significant locations 
where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. The 
grants would be made in consultation with the Japanese American 
National Heritage Coalition, an umbrella organization of groups 
that are involved in efforts to preserve one or more of the 
Japanese American detention sites. The bill would authorize 
appropriations of $38 million for this purpose.
    The Department is actively involved in preserving resources 
associated with the experience of Japanese Americans during 
World War II and collecting and disseminating information on 
this unfortunate chapter of our Nation's history. As recently 
as 1990, the National Park Service had virtually no role in 
preserving and interpreting this story. That changed in 1992, 
when Congress (1) authorized the establishment of Manzanar 
National Historic Site in central California, (2) directed the 
National Park Service to conduct a National Historic Landmark 
(NHL) theme study of sites associated with the detention of 
Japanese Americans during World War II, and (3) authorized a 
memorial in the Nation's Capital to honor Japanese American 
patriotism in World War II.
    Today, the National Park Service administers two of the ten 
internment camps. In addition to Manzanar, the Minidoka 
Relocation Center in Idaho was added as a unit of the National 
Park System in 2001 following a presidential proclamation that 
designated the site as Minidoka Internment National Monument. 
Manzanar is a now a well-established unit; its visitor center 
was opened two years ago and its annual visitation is about 
78,000. Minidoka is preparing a General Management Plan and is 
still under development.
    In 1999, to provide the documentation needed for the NHL 
theme study authorized by Congress, the National Park Service's 
Western Archeological and Conservation Center published an 
extensive compilation and analysis of resources associated with 
these sites. This compilation, Confinement and Ethnicity: An 
Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites, 
has proven to be an invaluable source of information about this 
subject not only for the National Park Service but also for the 
many organizations that are involved in the efforts to preserve 
these sites.
    The NHL theme study directed by Congress is nearly 
complete. Based on that study, two internment camps were 
designated in February as National Historic Landmarks: Tule 
Lake in California, and Granada in Colorado. National Historic 
Landmark designation is the highest level of historic 
significance our Nation bestows on a place. As designated 
sites, they are eligible for technical assistance available 
through our NHL program and they have an advantage in competing 
for public and private preservation grants.
    In addition to its designation as a NHL, Tule Lake received 
a Save America's Treasures matching grant of $200,000 in the 
Interior appropriations act for Fiscal Year 2006. The grant 
will be co-managed by the Tule Lake Committee for Preservation 
of the Tule Lake Camp and the National Park Service and used to 
stabilize the carpenters' shop and to correct drainage 
problems. The National Park Service is providing historic 
preservation assistance to the Bureau of Reclamation, which has 
administrative jurisdiction over part of the Tule Lake 
property, and to State agencies, which own the remaining part. 
The National Park Service is also providing technical 
assistance to Departmental bureaus and others to help preserve 
Heart Mountain in Wyoming, Topaz in Utah, and Granada in 
Colorado.
    The National Park Service is also close to finalizing and 
transmitting to Congress a special resource study of Bainbridge 
Island, Washington, which was the first location from which 
Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes 
following the issuance of Executive Order 9066, which provided 
the authority for the detention of Japanese Americans. This 
study, which was authorized by Congress in 2002, analyzes 
different alternatives for memorializing, preserving, and 
interpreting this important site. Our Pacific West Regional 
Office, through the National Park Service's Preservation 
Partnership programs, has also provided technical assistance to 
the Bainbridge Island community to document the community's 
internment experiences and the history of the Japanese on 
Bainbridge. That office also provided funding to train Asian-
American students in documenting sites important to the history 
of their communities.
    In addition, the National Park Service, through its 
National Mall and Memorial Parks unit, administers the memorial 
to Japanese American Patriotism in World War II, which is 
located about two blocks north of the U.S. Capitol Building. 
Our National Capital Region office assisted in establishing the 
memorial. We helped secure an appropriate site for the 
memorial, assisted in its design, and facilitated the approval 
process for it. The memorial honors the approximately 120,000 
Japanese Americans who were relocated to the internment camps. 
It incorporates the names and locations of the camps, as well 
as the names of Japanese Americans who died in military service 
to the United States during World War II.
    A few examples of other activities we have engaged in 
include:
    Establishing a lesson plan on the War Relocation Camps of 
World War 1I on the National Park Service's ``Teaching with 
Historic Places'' web site;
    Conducting oral history recording projects that entailed 
recording the histories of internees and other individuals 
associated with the World War II internment; and
    Providing technical assistance to the Jerome County 
Historical Society, Idaho, to copy original newspapers from 
1942-1945 onto microfilm for reference and research purposes, 
and technical assistance to develop methods to preserve 
internment-related materials for long-term preservation.
    The Department would like to continue and build on the 
efforts we are already involved in on this subject. In addition 
to the activities already mentioned, there are other ways the 
National Park Service could enhance the role we play in 
protecting resources and interpreting the history of the 
Japanese American experience in World War II at a relatively 
small cost. For example, working in partnership with other 
entities that own and administer the internment camp sites, we 
could develop a comprehensive interpretative plan for all ten 
sites. We could designate a staff person to coordinate the 
preservation and interpretation activities among the different 
sites. Another possibility would be to publish a handbook on 
the internment camps that would be available at National Park 
Service bookstores. We could also develop a web-based travel 
itinerary on the sites.
    To summarize, we believe there are appropriate ways for the 
National Park Service to expand upon its already significant 
role in increasing public awareness and understanding of the 
Japanese American experience during World War II. But we do not 
believe it is appropriate for the National Park Service budget 
to be used as a funding source for grants to non-Federal 
entities to undertake costly restoration and other types of 
projects at the sites of these camps. We therefore cannot 
support S. 1719 and H.R. 1492.
    Mr. Chairman, this concludes my prepared remarks. I will be 
happy to respond to questions from you or other members of the 
committee.

                        CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

    In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee notes that no 
changes in existing law are made by the act H.R. 1492, as 
ordered reported.

                                  
