[Senate Report 115-108]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 145
115th Congress } { Report
SENATE
1st Session } { 115-108
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JAY S. HAMMOND WILDERNESS ACT OF 2017
_______
June 14, 2017.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Ms. Murkowski, from the Committee on Energy and Natural
Resources, submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 213]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was
referred the bill (S. 213) to designate the wilderness within
the Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in the State of
Alaska as the Jay S. Hammond Wilderness Area, having considered
the same, reports favorably thereon without amendment and
recommends that the bill do pass.
PURPOSE
The purpose of S. 213 is to designate the wilderness within
the Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in the State of
Alaska as the Jay S. Hammond Wilderness Area.
BACKGROUND AND NEED
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, established by
Congress in 1980 in the Alaska National Interest Lands
Conservation Act (ANILCA, Public Law 96-487), preserves and
protects some 3,653,000 acres of Southwest Alaska on the
western shore of Cook Inlet as a national park and preserve.
Although occupied by Alaska Natives for centuries, the area
was explored by Russian explorers after 1741. After the United
States purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, Charles Leslie
McKay became the first Euro-American to explore the area in
1881, collecting artifacts for the Smithsonian Institution. In
1891, a party led by explorer Alfred B. Schanz again traveled
through the area. Included in the Schanz party was John W.
Clark, a representative of the Alaska Commercial Company. The
Schanz party renamed the lake from its native Dena'ina name,
Qiz'jeh Vena--``the lake where many people gather''--to Lake
Clark to honor John Clark.
The first permanent non-Native resident, Brown Carlson, a
trapper, moved to the area in 1903. With the advent of the
float airplane in 1930, more non-Native residents moved in and
settled around the Port Alsworth area. One early settler was
Jay Sterner Hammond. Hammond was a former petroleum engineer
born in New York, a U.S. Marines Corps fighter pilot who served
in China and the South Pacific in World War II, and a settler
to Alaska who arrived when it was a territory in 1947. After
the war, Hammond studied biological sciences and graduated from
the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1949. In 1950, the part-
time pilot, trapper, and guide became a biologist and field
agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and was stationed
in Southwest Alaska. He paddled the entire shoreline of the 45-
mile-long Lake Clark and selected a homestead where he built a
cabin. This homestead served as his primary residence for
nearly 55 years until his death in 2005.
Hammond, besides being a biologist and later a game guide,
entered politics when Alaska became a State in 1959. He served
three terms in the State House, two terms in the State Senate,
and was later elected Mayor of the Bristol Bay Borough in 1972,
after serving as its manager. He was then elected Governor of
the State of Alaska in 1974 and was reelected in 1978.
During his two terms, he opposed oil leasing in the
Kachemak Bay area of Cook Inlet, opposed construction of a
proposed Ramparts hydroelectric dam across the Yukon River,
supported the establishment by Congress of a 200-mile fisheries
conservation zone, proposed a state limited-entry fisheries
regime, proposed and oversaw the establishment of the nation's
largest state park, the 1.6-million-acre Wood Tikchik State
Park to the southwest of Lake Clark, and was Governor when
Congress passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation
Act in 1980. That Act added 104 million acres of land as
national parks, preserves, refuges, monuments, wild and scenic
rivers, and wilderness in Alaska, including creating Lake Clark
National Park and Preserve of which 2.6 million acres were
designated as wilderness. Hammond's homestead is located inside
the boundary of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. S. 213
would name the 2.6 million-acre existing wilderness area within
the Park and Preserve in memory of Governor Hammond, in
recognition of his significant accomplishments related to the
preservation of natural resources within the State of Alaska.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
Senators Murkowski and Sullivan introduced S. 213 on
January 24, 2017.
In the 114th Congress, Senators Murkowski and Sullivan
introduced a similar bill, S. 873, on March 26, 2015. The
Subcommittee on National Parks held a hearing on S. 873 on June
10, 2015. The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources met in
open business session on July 30, 2015, and ordered S. 873
favorably reported, as amended (S. Rept. 114-131).
The measure was included in Amendment No. 3234, which the
Senate agreed to on April 19, 2016, as an amendment to S. 2012,
the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016, which the Senate
passed, as amended, on April 20, 2016.
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources met in open
business session on March 30, 2017, and ordered S. 213
favorably reported.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in
open business session on March 30, 2017, by a majority voice
vote of a quorum present, recommends that the Senate pass S.
213.
SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS
Section 1 contains the short title, the ``Jay S. Hammond
Wilderness Act.''
Section 2 designates the approximately 2,600,000 acres of
existing wilderness in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve as
the Jay S. Hammond Wilderness Area and deems any reference to
the wilderness area in any law, map, regulation, document,
paper, or other record to be a reference to the Jay S. Hammond
Wilderness Area.
COST AND BUDGETARY CONSIDERATIONS
The following estimate of the costs of this measure has
been provided by the Congressional Budget Office:
S. 213 would designate the 2.6 million acres of wilderness
in the Lake Clark National Park and Preserve as the Jay S.
Hammond Wilderness in honor of Alaska's fourth governor. The
wilderness represents about 65 percent of Lake Clark's 4
million acres.
Based on information from the National Park Service on the
cost of changing the name of a wilderness area, CBO estimates
that S. 213 would have no significant effect on discretionary
spending because revising federal maps and signs to reflect the
new name would be done in conjunction with scheduled reprinting
and other routine maintenance.
Enacting S. 213 would not affect direct spending or
revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO
estimates that enacting S. 213 would not increase net direct
spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive
10-year periods beginning in 2028.
S. 213 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal
governments.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Jon Sperl. The
estimate was approved by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Assistant
Director for Budget Analysis.
REGULATORY IMPACT EVALUATION
In compliance with paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee makes the following
evaluation of the regulatory impact which would be incurred in
carrying out S. 213.
The bill is not a regulatory measure in the sense of
imposing Government-established standards or significant
economic responsibilities on private individuals and
businesses.
No personal information would be collected in administering
the provision. Therefore, there would be no impact on personal
privacy.
Little, if any, additional paperwork would result from the
enactment of S. 213, as ordered reported.
CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED SPENDING
S. 213, as ordered reported, does not contain any
congressionally directed spending items, limited tax benefits,
or limited tariff benefits as defined in rule XLIV of the
Standing Rules of the Senate.
EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS
Because S. 213 is similar to legislation considered by the
Committee in the 114th Congress, the Committee did not request
Executive Agency views. The testimony provided by the National
Park Service at the hearing before the Subcommittee on National
Parks on June 10, 2015, follows:
Facilities and Lands, National Park Service, Department of the
Interior, Before the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks, Committee
on Energy and Natural Resources, Concerning S. 873, To Designate the
Wilderness Within the Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in the
State of Alaska as the Jay S. Hammond Wilderness Area
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to present the
Department of the Interior's views on S. 873, a bill to
designate the wilderness within the Lake Clark National Park
and Preserve in the State of Alaska as the Jay S. Hammond
Wilderness Area.
The Department supports S. 873, which would designate the
approximately 2.6 million acres of National Wilderness
Preservation System land located within the Lake Clark National
Park and Preserve as the ``Jay S. Hammond Wilderness Area.''
This designation is a fitting and appropriate way to recognize
Hammond's significant contributions to the Alaska National
Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), the National Park
System, and Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, which was an
important part of an extraordinary legacy of public service.
In 1946, following his military service as a fighter pilot
during World War II, Jay Hammond came to Alaska and became a
bush pilot, guide and trapper. In 1949, Hammond graduated from
the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and went to work for the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. As a U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service employee, Hammond conducted wildlife surveys of the
Lake Clark area and located a homestead along Lake Clark. He
lived with his wife Bella in their lakeside homestead from
about 1982 until his death on August 2, 2005. Bella still
resides in the homestead and enjoys the splendid views of the
wilderness area.
In 1959, Hammond was elected to the state legislature and
served several terms before being elected as a state senator in
1967. From 1972 to 1974, Hammond was the mayor of the Bristol
Bay Borough. In 1974, he was elected Governor of Alaska, and
served the state in that role until 1982. During his tenure, he
oversaw the building and the opening of the Alaska Pipeline and
preserved a large portion of the oil lease revenues in the form
of a Permanent Fund which has been in existence for three
decades. As a governor who sought to balance the development of
Alaska's energy resources with the conservation of the state's
vast untouched natural resources, he worked with the Federal
government to achieve enactment of the legislation that became
ANILCA.
ANILCA protected 104 million acres of land. It added more
than 40 million acres in 10 new units of the National Park
System, including the 3.86 million-acre Lake Clark National
Park and Preserve. The law also designated the 2.6 million
acres of wilderness within Lake Clark National Park and
Preserve. Governor Hammond later said that what President
Carter had done with the signing of ANILCA was ``locking Alaska
open'' for future generations of Americans to enjoy and
preserve for all time.
The National Park Service Management Policies 2006 states
that ``to be permanently commemorated in a national park is a
high honor, affording a degree of recognition that implies
national importance.'' The policies support the commemorative
naming of national park resources only in cases where there is
a compelling justification for the recognition. In general, a
compelling justification involves an association between the
park and the person that is of exceptional importance, as well
as a lapse of at least five years since the person's death. The
designation of wilderness within Lake Clark National Park and
Preserve in honor of Jay S. Hammond meets these criteria.
Mr. Chairman, this concludes my testimony, and I would be
happy to answer any questions you or other members may have.
CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee notes that no
changes in existing law are made by the bill as ordered
reported.
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