Haley Stevens: “The last time Congress enacted legislation on the overflights matter was in the 100th Congress under Public Law 100-91…”

“The last time Congress enacted legislation on the overflights matter was in the 100th Congress under Public Law 100-91 (101 Stat. 674 et seq.). Prior to enactment, this legislation was reviewed by both the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the Senate Committee on Commerce Science and Transportation. As a Commerce Committee member then and now, I would like to discuss P.L. 100-91. Under P.L. 100-91, Congress mandated a study by the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the National Park Service, to determine the impacts that overflights of aircraft have on park unit resources. Section 1(c) expressly excluded all National Park System units in Alaska from the research and the study. In a hearing held during the 105th Congress on S. 268, the park overflights bill that ultimately became Title VII of S. 2279, the National Park Service testified that Alaska parks were not a part of the study commissioned in 1987 and completed in 1995. Therefore, that study mandated by Congress did not provide a basis for applying S. 2279's park overflights provisions to Alaska.”