[House Report 115-782]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
115th Congress } { Report
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
2d Session } { 115-782
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GOLDEN SPIKE 150TH ANNIVERSARY ACT
_______
June 25, 2018.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
State of the Union and ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Bishop of Utah, from the Committee on Natural Resources, submitted
the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany H.R. 5751]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred
the bill (H.R. 5751) to redesignate Golden Spike National
Historic Site and to establish the Transcontinental Railroad
Network, having considered the same, report favorably thereon
with an amendment and recommend that the bill as amended do
pass.
The amendment is as follows:
Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the
following:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Golden Spike 150th Anniversary Act''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Adjacent landowner.--The term ``adjacent landowner''
means the non-Federal owner of property that directly abuts the
Park boundaries.
(2) Historical crossing.--The term ``historical crossing''
means a corridor with a maximum width of 30 feet across former
railroad rights-of-way within the Park--
(A) that has been used by adjacent landowners in an
open manner multiple times in more than 1 of the past
10 years for vehicle, farm machinery, or livestock
travel; or
(B) where existing utility or pipelines have been
placed.
(3) Network.--The term ``Network'' means the Transcontinental
Railroad Network established under section 4.
(4) Park.--The term ``Park'' means the Golden Spike National
Historical Park designated under section 3.
(5) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of
the Interior, acting through the Director of the National Park
Service.
(6) Transcontinental railroad.--The term ``Transcontinental
Railroad'' means the approximately 1,912-mile continuous
railroad constructed between 1863 and 1869 from Council Bluffs,
Iowa, to San Francisco, California.
SEC. 3. REDESIGNATION.
(a) Redesignation.--The Golden Spike National Historic Site
designated April 2, 1957, and placed under the administration of the
National Park Service under the Act of July 10, 1965 (79 Stat. 426),
shall be known and designated as the ``Golden Spike National Historical
Park''.
(b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document,
paper, or other record of the United States to the Golden Spike
National Historic Site shall be considered a reference to the ``Golden
Spike National Historical Park''.
(c) Network.--The Park shall be part of the Network.
SEC. 4. TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD NETWORK.
(a) In General.--The Secretary shall establish, within the National
Park Service, the Transcontinental Railroad Network. The Network shall
not include properties used in active freight railroad operations (or
other ancillary purposes) or reasonably anticipated to be used for
freight railroad operations in the future.
(b) Study.--The Secretary shall--
(1) inventory National Park Service sites, facilities, and
programs; and
(2) identify other sites, facilities, and programs,
to determine their suitability for inclusion in the Network, as
delineated under subsection (e).
(c) Duties of the Secretary.--In carrying out the Network, the
Secretary shall--
(1) produce and disseminate appropriate education materials
relating to the history, construction, and legacy of the
Transcontinental Railroad, such as handbooks, maps,
interpretive guides, or electronic information;
(2) enter into appropriate cooperative agreements and
memoranda of understanding to provide technical assistance
under subsection (d); and
(3) create and adopt an official, uniform symbol or device
for the Network and issue guidance for the use of such symbol
or device.
(d) Elements.--The Network shall encompass the following elements:
(1) All units and programs of the National Park Service that
are determined by the Secretary to relate to the history,
construction, and legacy of the Transcontinental Railroad.
(2) With the consent of each person owning any legal interest
in the property, other Federal, State, local, and privately
owned properties that have a verifiable connection to the
history, construction, and legacy of the Transcontinental
Railroad and are included in, or determined by the Secretary to
be eligible for inclusion in, the National Register of Historic
Places.
(3) Other governmental and nongovernmental programs of an
educational, research, or interpretive nature that are directly
related to the history, construction, and legacy of the
Transcontinental Railroad.
(e) Cooperative Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding.--To
achieve the purposes of this section and to ensure effective
coordination of the Federal and non-Federal elements of the Network
described in subsection (d) with National Park System units and
programs of the National Park Service, the Secretary may enter into
cooperative agreements and memoranda of understanding with, and provide
technical assistance to, the heads of other Federal agencies, States,
units of local government, regional governmental bodies, and private
entities.
SEC. 5. AGREEMENTS AFFECTING CERTAIN HISTORICAL CROSSINGS.
(a) Programmatic Agreement.--No later than 6 months after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall enter into a Programmatic
Agreement with the Utah State Historic Preservation Office and other
consulting parties to add certain undertakings in the Park to the list
of those eligible for streamlined review under section 106 of the
Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (54 U.S.C. 306108). In the
development of the Programmatic Agreement, the Secretary shall
collaborate with adjacent landowners, Tribes, and other consulting
parties.
(b) Adjacent Landowners.--After the completion of the Programmatic
Agreement under subsection (a), an adjacent landowner shall give the
Secretary notice of proposed certain undertakings. The Programmatic
Agreement shall include provision for a 30-day approval or disapproval
process for the proposed certain undertaking.
(c) Definition of Certain Undertakings.--As used in this section, the
term ``certain undertakings'' means those activities that take place
on, within, or under a historical crossing and--
(1) will last less than 1 month and will have limited
physical impact on the surface of the historical crossing;
(2) have been implemented by an adjacent landowner or other
adjacent landowners in the past; or
(3) is the subject of a categorical exclusion under the
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et
seq.).
SEC. 6. INVASIVE SPECIES CONTROL.
At the request of an adjacent landowner, within 30 days of such a
request, the Secretary shall authorize the adjacent landowner to
participate in the eradication of invasive species in the Park for a
period of up to 10 years, subject to renewal. Such an authorization
shall provide--
(1) that the invasive species proposed for eradication is
identified as such by the National Park Service;
(2) that the method, timing, and location of the eradication
must be approved by the Secretary; and
(3) appropriate indemnification of the adjacent landowner.
SEC. 7. FUNDING CLARIFICATION.
No additional funds are authorized to carry out the requirements of
this Act. Such requirements shall be carried out using amounts
otherwise authorized.
PURPOSE OF THE BILL
The purpose of H.R. 5751 is to redesignate Golden Spike
National Historic Site and to establish the Transcontinental
Railroad Network.
BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION
With the driving of the final spike of the Transcontinental
Railroad on May 10, 1869, at Promontory, Utah, the United
States was transformed. The great race across the frontier
between the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads was
over and the American continent was connected. The 3,000-mile
journey from New York to San Francisco that had taken months
now only took seven days.\1\ The ``Wedding of the Rails''
accelerated the industrial revolution and gave America a
network of communication, commerce, and transportation that
united the nation.
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\1\``Transcontinental Travel Times in 1869.'' Central Pacific
Railroad Photographic History Museum. http://discussion.cprr.net/2011/
05/transcontinental-travel-times-in-1869.html.
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The mid-19th century goal of building a rail line across
the continent became a reality with the passage of the Pacific
Rail Act of 1862 (12 Stat. 489, App. July 1, 1862). The Act
called for the creation of the Union Pacific Railroad Company
and for it to construct a rail line and telegraph westward from
the Missouri River near Omaha, Nebraska. Likewise, the Central
Pacific Railroad Company was to construct a railroad and
telegraph eastward from the Pacific Coast at or near San
Francisco or the navigable waters of the Sacramento River.\2\
Subsequent Rail Acts set up a race between the two companies to
lay the most miles of track as they built towards a meeting
point in the Utah desert. The parallel grades of the Union
Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads that can still be seen
today near Promontory Summit are a testament to the intense
competition.\3\
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\2\``An Act to aid in the Construction of a Railroad and Telegraph
Line from The Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, and to secure to the
Government the Use of the same for Postal, Military, and Other
Purposes.'' 37th United States Congress, 2nd Session, July 1. 1862.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsl&fileName=012/
llsl012.db&recNum=520.
\3\National Park Service. 1969. ``Historical Base Map 1869 Golden
Spike National Historic Site Utah.'' http://npshistory.com/
publications/gosp/hbm.pdf.
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The estimated 20,000 men who laid 1,776 miles of track
overcame formidable physical and logistical challenges that
many believed were impossible.\4\ The builders of the Central
Pacific conquered waterless deserts and the rugged Sierra
Mountains, blasting tunnels through resistant granite sometimes
at a rate of only six inches per day.\5\ Those building the
Union Pacific had to cross the Rocky Mountains and faced attack
by some hostile American Indian tribes whose traditional way of
life was being threatened. Both railroads employed laborers
that reflected the changing face of the nation: Chinese, Irish,
and Italian immigrants, as well as Civil War veterans, former
slaves, and American Indians.\6\
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\4\``Building a Road.'' Union Pacific Corporation. UP.com https://
www.up.com/aboutup/history/overview/building_road/index.htm.
\5\Stewart, John J. 1994. The Iron Trail to the Golden Spike. New
York: Meadow Lark Press. p 130.
\6\National Park Service. 2000. ``Cultural Landscape Report: Golden
Spike National Historic Site, Box Elder County, Utah'' http://
npshistory.com/series/archeology/rmr/16/index.htm.
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An often overlooked but equally momentous event also
occurred on May 10, 1869, when the telegraph lines running
parallel to the tracks were joined. For the first time, news
and information could be heard simultaneously across the
country. The driving of the Golden Spike and the ceremony at
Promontory was the nation's first mass media event, as
residents from New York to Sacramento and everywhere in between
turned out to hear the announcement that the last tie was laid
and the country was finally connected.\7\
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\7\Ambrose, Stephen E. 2000. Nothing Like it in the World: The Men
Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869. New York: Simon &
Schuster. pp 364-365.
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The ``Last Spike'' site in remote northern Utah became a
symbol of a joined nation, industrialization, westward
expansion, and sheer human determination. The area was
recognized as a National Historic Site in 1957, though not in
federal ownership, and became a unit of the National Park
Service in 1965 through Public Law 89-102. Golden Spike
National Historic Site preserves a critical piece of America's
heritage and interprets the people, stories, and setting of the
completion of the world's first transcontinental railroad.
On May 10, 1969, Americans celebrated the 100th Anniversary
of the ``Wedding of the Rails.'' An astounding 28,000 people
were on hand for the centennial commemoration event, and that
year 169,600 visited the site in total.\8\ Ten years later, for
the 110th Anniversary, two fully functional replicas of the
Jupiter and No. 119 locomotives arrived at the site.
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\8\National Park Service. 2018. ``The Last Spike: History at a
Glance.'' https://www.nps.gov/gosp/learn/historyculture/the-last-spike-
history-at-a-glance.htm.
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The Golden Spike 150th Anniversary Act, H.R. 5751, elevates
the status of the site by redesignating Golden Spike National
Historic Site as Golden Spike National Historical Park. The
Committee believes that redesignation as a historical park will
enhance the visibility of the site and increase visitation.
Redesignation as a national historical park will not affect
management of the site.
The bill also ensures that other federal, State, local, and
privately-owned sites and structures critical to the history,
construction, and legacy of the Transcontinental Railroad are
recognized and linked together in a new Transcontinental
Railroad Network. This network will be similar to the
previously established National Underground Railroad Network to
Freedom and the African American Civil Rights Network.
Additionally, H.R. 5751 eases restrictions on ranchers
whose land is bisected by the park, and who need to cross
federal lands to operate their ranches. The bill requires the
Secretary of the Interior to develop a programmatic agreement
with the Utah State Historic Preservation Office and other
consulting parties. The completed programmatic agreement will
provide a streamlined process for adjacent landowners to
complete minor projects through defined prescriptive easements,
while ensuring compliance with the National Historic
Preservation Act of 1966 (54 U.S.C. 300101 et seq.) and other
federal laws and regulations.
Finally, adjacent landowners are concerned about land
managed by the National Park Service at Golden Spike National
Historic Site becoming an incubator for invasive species. The
bill requires the Secretary of the Interior, at the request of
a local landowner, to authorize the landowner to participate in
the eradication of the invasive species. The Secretary will
dictate through the agreement the method, timing, and location
where eradication may occur and must provide for appropriate
indemnification of the adjacent landowner.
A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate as S.
2831 by Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT).
COMMITTEE ACTION
H.R. 5751 was introduced on May 10, 2018, by Congressman
Rob Bishop (R-UT). The bill was referred to the Committee on
Natural Resources, and within the Committee to the Subcommittee
on Federal Lands. On May 22, 2018, the Subcommittee held a
hearing on the legislation. On June 6, 2018, the Natural
Resources Committee met to consider the bill. The Subcommittee
was discharged by unanimous consent. Congressman Rob Bishop
offered an amendment designated #1; it was adopted by unanimous
consent. No additional amendments were offered and the bill, as
amended, was ordered favorably reported to the House of
Representatives by unanimous consent.
COMMITTEE OVERSIGHT FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Regarding clause 2(b)(1) of rule X and clause 3(c)(1) of
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the
Committee on Natural Resources' oversight findings and
recommendations are reflected in the body of this report.
COMPLIANCE WITH HOUSE RULE XIII AND CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET ACT
1. Cost of Legislation and the Congressional Budget Act.
With respect to the requirements of clause 3(c)(2) and (3) of
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and
sections 308(a) and 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of
1974, the Committee has received the following estimate for the
bill from the Director of the Congressional Budget Office:
U.S. Congress,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, June 22, 2018.
Hon. Rob Bishop,
Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 5751, the Golden
Spike 150th Anniversary Act.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contacts are Janani
Shankaran and Sophie Godfrey-McKee.
Sincerely,
Keith Hall,
Director.
Enclosure.
H.R. 5751--Golden Spike 150th Anniversary Act
H.R. 5751 would redesignate the Golden Spike National
Historic Site in Promontory, Utah, as the Golden Spike National
Historical Park. The bill also would direct the National Park
Service (NPS) to establish the Transcontinental Railroad
Network, which would comprise existing units and programs of
the NPS related to the history of the Transcontinental Railroad
as well as the properties and programs of other federal, state,
local, and private entities that join the network.
Redesignating the Golden Spike National Historic Site may
require the NPS to update maps, informational materials, and
signage. Based on the costs of similar tasks, CBO estimates
that those costs would be insignificant and would be subject to
the availability of appropriated funds.
As part of establishing the Transcontinental Railroad
Network, the NPS would produce and distribute maps and
interpretive guides, create and adopt an official symbol for
the network, and provide assistance to participating entities.
Using information from the NPS about the costs of administering
similar efforts and based on the expected scope of the program,
CBO estimates that the agency would need less than $500,000 in
the first year following enactment for basic planning,
developing educational materials, and coordinating activities
with participating entities. In subsequent years, CBO estimates
that the NPS would require about $1 million each year to manage
the network and provide technical assistance to participating
entities through cooperative agreements.
In total, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 5751 would
cost about $4 million over the 2019-2023 period; such spending
would be subject to availability of appropriated funds.
Enacting H.R. 5751 would not affect direct spending or
revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 5751 would not increase
net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four
consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2029.
H.R. 5751 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Janani
Shankaran and Sophie Godfrey-McKee. The estimate was reviewed
by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Assistant Director for Budget
Analysis.
2. General Performance Goals and Objectives. As required by
clause 3(c)(4) of rule XIII, the general performance goal or
objective of this bill is to redesignate Golden Spike National
Historic Site and to establish the Transcontinental Railroad
Network.
EARMARK STATEMENT
This bill does not contain any Congressional earmarks,
limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined
under clause 9(e), 9(f), and 9(g) of rule XXI of the Rules of
the House of Representatives.
COMPLIANCE WITH PUBLIC LAW 104-4
This bill contains no unfunded mandates.
COMPLIANCE WITH H. RES. 5
Directed Rule Making. This bill does not contain any
directed rule makings.
Duplication of Existing Programs. This bill does not
establish or reauthorize a program of the federal government
known to be duplicative of another program. Such program was
not included in any report from the Government Accountability
Office to Congress pursuant to section 21 of Public Law 111-139
or identified in the most recent Catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance published pursuant to the Federal Program
Information Act (Public Law 95-220, as amended by Public Law
98-169) as relating to other programs.
PREEMPTION OF STATE, LOCAL OR TRIBAL LAW
This bill is not intended to preempt any State, local or
tribal law.
CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW
If enacted, this bill would make no changes to existing
law.
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