On the recordJuly 26, 2011
First of all, I'm not sure why you want the Beach Boys to be the issue here. We were just discussing Mr. Watt's tenure as Secretary of the Interior. That was not so successful when he came after the Beach Boys. But be that as it may, what we're really talking about here are a number of nonprofit organizations, and these are national memorials. Ford's Theater, Wolf Trap. I guess because the Beach Boys performed at Wolf Trap they are an issue. Actually, I would recommend to the gentleman that he watch them perform. I guess it's more my age than yours that can relate to them, but it was a pretty good performance. But I digress. We're talking about Ford's Theater, Wolf Trap, Carter Barron, all part of the National Park System. The Kennedy Center is a national memorial. These are performing arts right here on the Capitol grounds as well. Now we're talking about nationally significant sites, and the performances that occur, in fact, are part of the mission of these sites. They were authorized for members of the public, the taxpaying public, to come to a nonprofit venue and, in fact, be entertained. The national parks do that. They entertain the public that pays for them, sometimes by seeing iconic sites, sometimes by hiking and camping, sometimes it's by performances. So the National Park Service is in keeping with its mission to interpret the purpose of these national sites. These performances are seen by citizens, in fact, all over the country.…
