Bruce F. Vento: “I commend the gentleman and agree with his statement. I, furthermore, think that the litigation that has brought is…”

“I commend the gentleman and agree with his statement. I, furthermore, think that the litigation that has brought is often sometimes necessary. It is the cutting edge of trying to define what the property rights are, what the covenants are, how we are going to proceed with this. And that differs in all 50 states. Frankly, we get by with very little dollars in the Historic Preservation Act. The state historic preservation offices have little money coming from the Federal Government. We try to set national standards with regards to that so that fabric is consistent nationally. They have done a very good job in this particular program. If you want to change it, fine. But give them a chance to do it. They have leveraged. They have completed their statutory mission. They are doing it today. Obviously, the fundraising and other activities they do, even the lobbying is set out there separately. I worked very hard with them on, for instance, the establishment of a coin so that they could issue the Civil War coin. They stated their dollars and accurately, and part of these fundraising and other efforts obviously spill over into that. They are allocating it properly. I think they have done a good job. You have cut them deeply. I do not think we ought to eliminate it. This would be a real mistake.”