Bruce F. Vento: “Mr. Speaker, the fact that is misunderstood here is while this may all be discretionary in the bill based on the status…”

“Mr. Speaker, the fact that is misunderstood here is while this may all be discretionary in the bill based on the status of the language, the fact is that the history of this has been that in the Committee on Appropriations they will place money into the appropriation designated for various sites. That is how we end up with hundreds of thousands of dollars and millions of dollars being spent on some of these sites which are not designated or are outside the authorizing gambit of the committee. So it is the opportunity and responsibility of the authorizing committee, the Committee on Resources that has charged the Park Service to do these studies, to use the information and to come back and try to guide the policy path with regard to resources, culturally important issues, as the Underground Railroad. We cannot wrap this up and hide the fact that we are proposing today an open-ended expenditure from the Federal treasury and authorizing the appropriators to in fact appropriate money, and in fact providing under technical assistance, where there is an open dollar amount that is given each year for the Park Service to use. So there are Federal dollars that are going to flow--taxpayer fund and we should be guided by sound policy. No question, this is an important topic and issue in our culture and history. That is why I am on my feet debating this policy path.”