Pete Domenici: “Today, Senator Bingaman and I are introducing the ``Pecos National Historical Park Land Exchange Act of 2004''. This…”

“Today, Senator Bingaman and I are introducing the ``Pecos National Historical Park Land Exchange Act of 2004''. This bill will authorize a land exchange between the Federal Government and a private landowner that will benefit the Pecos National Historical Park in my State of New Mexico. I am pleased to be working on this legislation again with Senator Bingaman. This bill is nearly identical to a bill that we worked on and marked up in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in the 106th Session of Congress. The bill will enable the Park Service to acquire a private inholding within the Pecos National Historic Park's boundaries in exchange for the transfer of a nearby tract of National Forest System land. The National Forest parcel has been identified as surplus and available for exchange in the Santa Fe National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan and is surrounded by private lands on three sides. The Pecos National Historical Park is located between the Great Plains and the Rio Grande Valley and that has made it the focus of the region's 10,000 years of human history. The park preserves the ruins of the great Pecos pueblo--a major trade center--and the ruins of two Spanish colonial missions dating from the 17th and 18th centuries.”