Weekly Legislative Activities Report

The Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs puts out weekly reports on hearings, new legislation and other activities on the Hill. The following is the February 27th summary.  

In order to obtain the full text of any of the bills that appear below, click on the following link: http://thomas.loc.gov/ . That will take you to Thomas, the Library of Congress legislative tracking system. Enter the bill number in the “Search Bill Text” block, being sure to also click on the “Bill Number” option below the block.

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New Public Laws

No new laws.

Floor Action

On February 23rd, the House passed H.R. 714 (Christensen, D-VI), to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to lease certain lands in Virgin Islands National Park, and for other purposes.  The bill would allow the National Park Service to enter into a lease for the Caneel Bay resort property with the current owner of the property’s retained use estate for up to 40 years, subject to certain terms and conditions.  The Department does not have a position on the bill, but the Department testified in support of the intent of similar legislation during the 110th Congress.

Markups

No markups.

Hearings

On February 25th, the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife held a hearing on H.R. 860 (Bordallo), to reauthorize the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000.  The DOI witness was Nikolao Pula, Director, Office of Insular Affairs.

New Bills Introduced

The following bills were introduced:

• S. 452 (Crapo, R-ID) - A bill to ensure public access to Federal land and to the airspace over Federal land.
• S. 472 (Vitter, R-LA) - A bill to provide for congressional approval of national monuments and restrictions on the use of national monuments.
• S. 479 (Cardin, D-MD) - A bill to amend the Chesapeake Bay Initiative Act of 1998 to provide for the continuing authorization of the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network.