California Coastal National Monument Expansion Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. FARR. I thank Mr. Huffman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the committee and Chairman Doc Hastings on bringing this bill to the floor.

I was instrumental in creating the Coastal National Monument along the California coastline. It had to be done by executive order because we couldn't get the bills out of committee. I just really appreciate the fact that the committee is concentrating on this, because a lot of these things that people kind of argue against they don't realize what the positive unintended consequences are.

What this bill does is it really talks about management of land. As the chairman pointed out, the substance of the bill allows the private enterprise, the agriculture to continue, and to have it in a way that is going to be cost-effective management. This is a win-win for the private sector and for the public sector.

In many cases, the Bureau of Land Management is a very effective land manager. It essentially, in the West, has a lot of the land that actually was never picked up by Forest Service. When you think of Forest Service, you think of timbering or mining and those kinds of things, or land that qualified for the National Park System as kind of the leftover lands of the westward expansion. They have a lot of land management responsibility and know-how.

The California coastline is the number one attraction and the number one engine. It is the whole engine of California. Most of the cities and stuff are all along the coast. So any time you add to ability to expand access--we sometimes forget in Congress that the number one activity of interest in this country is watchable wildlife. More people watch wildlife, whether it is in the movies or channels or buy gear to go out, than watch all the national sports. It is huge business and it is jobs. In the rural area, this is key to job development.

Since we've created the Coastal National Monument, we have had little towns and counties in the rural area that have been identifying the rocks, all of which have historical names from families or shipwrecks. Now it gives some attraction to it, some historical attraction, which people love to learn about. It has been a great educational tool to teach us about this 1,100-mile coastline in California sort of inch by inch.

This addition is going to be able to build more opportunity for job creation, as people want to hire people to give them access, want to buy pictures, want to buy books, want to buy art that's made from it.

So I really commend the committee on realizing that these things are responsible job development jobs, not just government ownership of land. When you say, well, it is taking it off the private tax rolls, remember, this is a private interest that wanted to sell it to a public system. Those lands will pay taxes in lieu of property taxes, PIL taxes. It will continue the economy of the area. But for the local area--this is pretty rural California, really rural--this will just be a huge economic boon tool.

I compliment Mr. Huffman. This is the first bill he has brought to the floor. I hope he brings more. He is a very able Member of Congress. He proved a great member of the California State Legislature.

Mr. Hastings, thank you for providing the leadership to get these bills to the floor so that we can have an opportunity to vote on them.

I urge an ``aye'' vote.

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