[House Report 115-782]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


115th Congress    }                                      {      Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 2d Session       }                                      {    115-782

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



 
                   GOLDEN SPIKE 150TH ANNIVERSARY ACT

                                _______
                                

 June 25, 2018.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 
              State of the Union and ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

Mr. Bishop of Utah, from the Committee on Natural Resources, submitted 
                             the following

                              R E P O R T

                        [To accompany H.R. 5751]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred 
the bill (H.R. 5751) to redesignate Golden Spike National 
Historic Site and to establish the Transcontinental Railroad 
Network, having considered the same, report favorably thereon 
with an amendment and recommend that the bill as amended do 
pass.
    The amendment is as follows:
  Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the 
following:

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

  This Act may be cited as the ``Golden Spike 150th Anniversary Act''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

  In this Act:
          (1) Adjacent landowner.--The term ``adjacent landowner'' 
        means the non-Federal owner of property that directly abuts the 
        Park boundaries.
          (2) Historical crossing.--The term ``historical crossing'' 
        means a corridor with a maximum width of 30 feet across former 
        railroad rights-of-way within the Park--
                  (A) that has been used by adjacent landowners in an 
                open manner multiple times in more than 1 of the past 
                10 years for vehicle, farm machinery, or livestock 
                travel; or
                  (B) where existing utility or pipelines have been 
                placed.
          (3) Network.--The term ``Network'' means the Transcontinental 
        Railroad Network established under section 4.
          (4) Park.--The term ``Park'' means the Golden Spike National 
        Historical Park designated under section 3.
          (5) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of 
        the Interior, acting through the Director of the National Park 
        Service.
          (6) Transcontinental railroad.--The term ``Transcontinental 
        Railroad'' means the approximately 1,912-mile continuous 
        railroad constructed between 1863 and 1869 from Council Bluffs, 
        Iowa, to San Francisco, California.

SEC. 3. REDESIGNATION.

  (a) Redesignation.--The Golden Spike National Historic Site 
designated April 2, 1957, and placed under the administration of the 
National Park Service under the Act of July 10, 1965 (79 Stat. 426), 
shall be known and designated as the ``Golden Spike National Historical 
Park''.
  (b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, 
paper, or other record of the United States to the Golden Spike 
National Historic Site shall be considered a reference to the ``Golden 
Spike National Historical Park''.
  (c) Network.--The Park shall be part of the Network.

SEC. 4. TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD NETWORK.

  (a) In General.--The Secretary shall establish, within the National 
Park Service, the Transcontinental Railroad Network. The Network shall 
not include properties used in active freight railroad operations (or 
other ancillary purposes) or reasonably anticipated to be used for 
freight railroad operations in the future.
  (b) Study.--The Secretary shall--
          (1) inventory National Park Service sites, facilities, and 
        programs; and
          (2) identify other sites, facilities, and programs,
to determine their suitability for inclusion in the Network, as 
delineated under subsection (e).
  (c) Duties of the Secretary.--In carrying out the Network, the 
Secretary shall--
          (1) produce and disseminate appropriate education materials 
        relating to the history, construction, and legacy of the 
        Transcontinental Railroad, such as handbooks, maps, 
        interpretive guides, or electronic information;
          (2) enter into appropriate cooperative agreements and 
        memoranda of understanding to provide technical assistance 
        under subsection (d); and
          (3) create and adopt an official, uniform symbol or device 
        for the Network and issue guidance for the use of such symbol 
        or device.
  (d) Elements.--The Network shall encompass the following elements:
          (1) All units and programs of the National Park Service that 
        are determined by the Secretary to relate to the history, 
        construction, and legacy of the Transcontinental Railroad.
          (2) With the consent of each person owning any legal interest 
        in the property, other Federal, State, local, and privately 
        owned properties that have a verifiable connection to the 
        history, construction, and legacy of the Transcontinental 
        Railroad and are included in, or determined by the Secretary to 
        be eligible for inclusion in, the National Register of Historic 
        Places.
          (3) Other governmental and nongovernmental programs of an 
        educational, research, or interpretive nature that are directly 
        related to the history, construction, and legacy of the 
        Transcontinental Railroad.
  (e) Cooperative Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding.--To 
achieve the purposes of this section and to ensure effective 
coordination of the Federal and non-Federal elements of the Network 
described in subsection (d) with National Park System units and 
programs of the National Park Service, the Secretary may enter into 
cooperative agreements and memoranda of understanding with, and provide 
technical assistance to, the heads of other Federal agencies, States, 
units of local government, regional governmental bodies, and private 
entities.

SEC. 5. AGREEMENTS AFFECTING CERTAIN HISTORICAL CROSSINGS.

  (a) Programmatic Agreement.--No later than 6 months after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall enter into a Programmatic 
Agreement with the Utah State Historic Preservation Office and other 
consulting parties to add certain undertakings in the Park to the list 
of those eligible for streamlined review under section 106 of the 
Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (54 U.S.C. 306108). In the 
development of the Programmatic Agreement, the Secretary shall 
collaborate with adjacent landowners, Tribes, and other consulting 
parties.
  (b) Adjacent Landowners.--After the completion of the Programmatic 
Agreement under subsection (a), an adjacent landowner shall give the 
Secretary notice of proposed certain undertakings. The Programmatic 
Agreement shall include provision for a 30-day approval or disapproval 
process for the proposed certain undertaking.
  (c) Definition of Certain Undertakings.--As used in this section, the 
term ``certain undertakings'' means those activities that take place 
on, within, or under a historical crossing and--
          (1) will last less than 1 month and will have limited 
        physical impact on the surface of the historical crossing;
          (2) have been implemented by an adjacent landowner or other 
        adjacent landowners in the past; or
          (3) is the subject of a categorical exclusion under the 
        National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et 
        seq.).

SEC. 6. INVASIVE SPECIES CONTROL.

  At the request of an adjacent landowner, within 30 days of such a 
request, the Secretary shall authorize the adjacent landowner to 
participate in the eradication of invasive species in the Park for a 
period of up to 10 years, subject to renewal. Such an authorization 
shall provide--
          (1) that the invasive species proposed for eradication is 
        identified as such by the National Park Service;
          (2) that the method, timing, and location of the eradication 
        must be approved by the Secretary; and
          (3) appropriate indemnification of the adjacent landowner.

SEC. 7. FUNDING CLARIFICATION.

  No additional funds are authorized to carry out the requirements of 
this Act. Such requirements shall be carried out using amounts 
otherwise authorized.

                          PURPOSE OF THE BILL

    The purpose of H.R. 5751 is to redesignate Golden Spike 
National Historic Site and to establish the Transcontinental 
Railroad Network.

                  BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION

    With the driving of the final spike of the Transcontinental 
Railroad on May 10, 1869, at Promontory, Utah, the United 
States was transformed. The great race across the frontier 
between the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads was 
over and the American continent was connected. The 3,000-mile 
journey from New York to San Francisco that had taken months 
now only took seven days.\1\ The ``Wedding of the Rails'' 
accelerated the industrial revolution and gave America a 
network of communication, commerce, and transportation that 
united the nation.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\``Transcontinental Travel Times in 1869.'' Central Pacific 
Railroad Photographic History Museum. http://discussion.cprr.net/2011/
05/transcontinental-travel-times-in-1869.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The mid-19th century goal of building a rail line across 
the continent became a reality with the passage of the Pacific 
Rail Act of 1862 (12 Stat. 489, App. July 1, 1862). The Act 
called for the creation of the Union Pacific Railroad Company 
and for it to construct a rail line and telegraph westward from 
the Missouri River near Omaha, Nebraska. Likewise, the Central 
Pacific Railroad Company was to construct a railroad and 
telegraph eastward from the Pacific Coast at or near San 
Francisco or the navigable waters of the Sacramento River.\2\ 
Subsequent Rail Acts set up a race between the two companies to 
lay the most miles of track as they built towards a meeting 
point in the Utah desert. The parallel grades of the Union 
Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads that can still be seen 
today near Promontory Summit are a testament to the intense 
competition.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\``An Act to aid in the Construction of a Railroad and Telegraph 
Line from The Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the 
Government the Use of the same for Postal, Military, and Other 
Purposes.'' 37th United States Congress, 2nd Session, July 1. 1862. 
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=012/
llsl012.db&recNum=520.
    \3\National Park Service. 1969. ``Historical Base Map 1869 Golden 
Spike National Historic Site Utah.'' http://npshistory.com/
publications/gosp/hbm.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The estimated 20,000 men who laid 1,776 miles of track 
overcame formidable physical and logistical challenges that 
many believed were impossible.\4\ The builders of the Central 
Pacific conquered waterless deserts and the rugged Sierra 
Mountains, blasting tunnels through resistant granite sometimes 
at a rate of only six inches per day.\5\ Those building the 
Union Pacific had to cross the Rocky Mountains and faced attack 
by some hostile American Indian tribes whose traditional way of 
life was being threatened. Both railroads employed laborers 
that reflected the changing face of the nation: Chinese, Irish, 
and Italian immigrants, as well as Civil War veterans, former 
slaves, and American Indians.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\``Building a Road.'' Union Pacific Corporation. UP.com https://
www.up.com/aboutup/history/overview/building_road/index.htm.
    \5\Stewart, John J. 1994. The Iron Trail to the Golden Spike. New 
York: Meadow Lark Press. p 130.
    \6\National Park Service. 2000. ``Cultural Landscape Report: Golden 
Spike National Historic Site, Box Elder County, Utah'' http://
npshistory.com/series/archeology/rmr/16/index.htm.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    An often overlooked but equally momentous event also 
occurred on May 10, 1869, when the telegraph lines running 
parallel to the tracks were joined. For the first time, news 
and information could be heard simultaneously across the 
country. The driving of the Golden Spike and the ceremony at 
Promontory was the nation's first mass media event, as 
residents from New York to Sacramento and everywhere in between 
turned out to hear the announcement that the last tie was laid 
and the country was finally connected.\7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\Ambrose, Stephen E. 2000. Nothing Like it in the World: The Men 
Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869. New York: Simon & 
Schuster. pp 364-365.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The ``Last Spike'' site in remote northern Utah became a 
symbol of a joined nation, industrialization, westward 
expansion, and sheer human determination. The area was 
recognized as a National Historic Site in 1957, though not in 
federal ownership, and became a unit of the National Park 
Service in 1965 through Public Law 89-102. Golden Spike 
National Historic Site preserves a critical piece of America's 
heritage and interprets the people, stories, and setting of the 
completion of the world's first transcontinental railroad.
    On May 10, 1969, Americans celebrated the 100th Anniversary 
of the ``Wedding of the Rails.'' An astounding 28,000 people 
were on hand for the centennial commemoration event, and that 
year 169,600 visited the site in total.\8\ Ten years later, for 
the 110th Anniversary, two fully functional replicas of the 
Jupiter and No. 119 locomotives arrived at the site.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\National Park Service. 2018. ``The Last Spike: History at a 
Glance.'' https://www.nps.gov/gosp/learn/historyculture/the-last-spike-
history-at-a-glance.htm.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Golden Spike 150th Anniversary Act, H.R. 5751, elevates 
the status of the site by redesignating Golden Spike National 
Historic Site as Golden Spike National Historical Park. The 
Committee believes that redesignation as a historical park will 
enhance the visibility of the site and increase visitation. 
Redesignation as a national historical park will not affect 
management of the site.
    The bill also ensures that other federal, State, local, and 
privately-owned sites and structures critical to the history, 
construction, and legacy of the Transcontinental Railroad are 
recognized and linked together in a new Transcontinental 
Railroad Network. This network will be similar to the 
previously established National Underground Railroad Network to 
Freedom and the African American Civil Rights Network.
    Additionally, H.R. 5751 eases restrictions on ranchers 
whose land is bisected by the park, and who need to cross 
federal lands to operate their ranches. The bill requires the 
Secretary of the Interior to develop a programmatic agreement 
with the Utah State Historic Preservation Office and other 
consulting parties. The completed programmatic agreement will 
provide a streamlined process for adjacent landowners to 
complete minor projects through defined prescriptive easements, 
while ensuring compliance with the National Historic 
Preservation Act of 1966 (54 U.S.C. 300101 et seq.) and other 
federal laws and regulations.
    Finally, adjacent landowners are concerned about land 
managed by the National Park Service at Golden Spike National 
Historic Site becoming an incubator for invasive species. The 
bill requires the Secretary of the Interior, at the request of 
a local landowner, to authorize the landowner to participate in 
the eradication of the invasive species. The Secretary will 
dictate through the agreement the method, timing, and location 
where eradication may occur and must provide for appropriate 
indemnification of the adjacent landowner.
    A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate as S. 
2831 by Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT).

                            COMMITTEE ACTION

    H.R. 5751 was introduced on May 10, 2018, by Congressman 
Rob Bishop (R-UT). The bill was referred to the Committee on 
Natural Resources, and within the Committee to the Subcommittee 
on Federal Lands. On May 22, 2018, the Subcommittee held a 
hearing on the legislation. On June 6, 2018, the Natural 
Resources Committee met to consider the bill. The Subcommittee 
was discharged by unanimous consent. Congressman Rob Bishop 
offered an amendment designated #1; it was adopted by unanimous 
consent. No additional amendments were offered and the bill, as 
amended, was ordered favorably reported to the House of 
Representatives by unanimous consent.

            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 Natural Resources' oversight findings and 
recommendations are reflected in the body of this report.

      COMPLIANCE WITH HOUSE RULE XIII AND CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET ACT

    1. Cost of Legislation and the Congressional Budget Act. 
With respect to the requirements of clause 3(c)(2) and (3) of 
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and 
sections 308(a) and 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 
1974, the Committee has received the following estimate for the 
bill from the Director of the Congressional Budget Office:

                                     U.S. Congress,
                               Congressional Budget Office,
                                     Washington, DC, June 22, 2018.
Hon. Rob Bishop,
Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 5751, the Golden 
Spike 150th Anniversary Act.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contacts are Janani 
Shankaran and Sophie Godfrey-McKee.
            Sincerely,
                                                Keith Hall,
                                                          Director.
    Enclosure.

H.R. 5751--Golden Spike 150th Anniversary Act

    H.R. 5751 would redesignate the Golden Spike National 
Historic Site in Promontory, Utah, as the Golden Spike National 
Historical Park. The bill also would direct the National Park 
Service (NPS) to establish the Transcontinental Railroad 
Network, which would comprise existing units and programs of 
the NPS related to the history of the Transcontinental Railroad 
as well as the properties and programs of other federal, state, 
local, and private entities that join the network.
    Redesignating the Golden Spike National Historic Site may 
require the NPS to update maps, informational materials, and 
signage. Based on the costs of similar tasks, CBO estimates 
that those costs would be insignificant and would be subject to 
the availability of appropriated funds.
    As part of establishing the Transcontinental Railroad 
Network, the NPS would produce and distribute maps and 
interpretive guides, create and adopt an official symbol for 
the network, and provide assistance to participating entities. 
Using information from the NPS about the costs of administering 
similar efforts and based on the expected scope of the program, 
CBO estimates that the agency would need less than $500,000 in 
the first year following enactment for basic planning, 
developing educational materials, and coordinating activities 
with participating entities. In subsequent years, CBO estimates 
that the NPS would require about $1 million each year to manage 
the network and provide technical assistance to participating 
entities through cooperative agreements.
    In total, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 5751 would 
cost about $4 million over the 2019-2023 period; such spending 
would be subject to availability of appropriated funds.
    Enacting H.R. 5751 would not affect direct spending or 
revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
    CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 5751 would not increase 
net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four 
consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2029.
    H.R. 5751 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
    The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Janani 
Shankaran and Sophie Godfrey-McKee. The estimate was reviewed 
by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Assistant Director for Budget 
Analysis.
    2. General Performance Goals and Objectives. As required by 
clause 3(c)(4) of rule XIII, the general performance goal or 
objective of this bill is to redesignate Golden Spike National 
Historic Site and to establish the Transcontinental Railroad 
Network.

                           EARMARK STATEMENT

    This bill does not contain any Congressional earmarks, 
limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined 
under clause 9(e), 9(f), and 9(g) of rule XXI of the Rules of 
the House of Representatives.

                    COMPLIANCE WITH PUBLIC LAW 104-4

    This bill contains no unfunded mandates.

                       COMPLIANCE WITH H. RES. 5

    Directed Rule Making. This bill does not contain any 
directed rule makings.
    Duplication of Existing Programs. This bill does not 
establish or reauthorize a program of the federal government 
known to be duplicative of another program. Such program was 
not included in any report from the Government Accountability 
Office to Congress pursuant to section 21 of Public Law 111-139 
or identified in the most recent Catalog of Federal Domestic 
Assistance published pursuant to the Federal Program 
Information Act (Public Law 95-220, as amended by Public Law 
98-169) as relating to other programs.

                PREEMPTION OF STATE, LOCAL OR TRIBAL LAW

    This bill is not intended to preempt any State, local or 
tribal law.

                        CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

    If enacted, this bill would make no changes to existing 
law.

                                  [all]