On the recordMarch 17, 2011
I rise today to bring to the Senate's attention H.R. 473. This is the HALE Scouts Act, and the House author is Congressman Dan Boren, D-Okla. I am announcing today introduction of a companion measure in the Senate, and I look forward to working towards its enactment into law in the 112th Congress. This bill authorizes the U.S. Forest Service to sell, at fair-market value, 140 acres of land in Southeast Oklahoma to an Oklahoma Boy Scouts group, the Indian Nations Council of Boy Scouts, which has a camp site adjacent to this land. This campsite hosts 6,500 campers every year and urgently needs the new expansion. In the 110th Congress, this same bill passed the House by a vote of 370-2 in the form of H.R. 2675. The bill gained even more support in the 111th Congress passing through the House by a vote of 388-0 as H.R. 310. CBO has written that it has no cost, and the U.S. Forest Service testified before the relevant House subcommittee that it does not oppose the bill. Much work has gone into this bill to get it to this point, including hearings and House floor consideration. Senate passage represents final action necessary for its completion. ______
