Tom Carper: “later this morning, I will introduce legislation, along with Senator Biden, calling for a feasibility study by the…”

“later this morning, I will introduce legislation, along with Senator Biden, calling for a feasibility study by the Department of the Interior for establishing a National Park Service unit in a State that has never had a national park. Believe it or not, the State that started the Nation, the first State to ever ratify the Constitution, has no national park. The State in which the first Swedes and Finns came to America and landed on what is now Wilmington, DE, calling it New Sweden, has no national park. The State where John Dickinson grew up, who is a coauthor of the Great Compromise creating a bicameral legislature, has no national park. I could go on. The heritage of our State and the history of our State together create a fabric which, in a sense, is the tapestry of America. Senator Biden and I thus call on the Department of the Interior to conduct a feasibility study to see if maybe a wonderful idea that has evolved from a committee led by Dr. Jim Soles, a professor at the University of Delaware, might win favor with the Department of the Interior and maybe with our colleagues in the year to come. What is being proposed is a Delaware national coastal heritage park. It would weave together many of the elements and attractions along the coast of our State, which include the Atlantic Ocean, the Delaware Bay, and the Delaware River.”