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Bruce Matthews testifies before Congress on H.R. 481

On July 8th, NCTA Executive Director Bruce Matthews testified on H.R. 481 (the Arrowhead Re-route bill) before the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands of the House Natural Resources Committee.

If you are curious as to what goes on during a Congressional hearing, you can listen to Bruce’s testimony as well as Rep. Oberstar’s online at http://resources.edgeboss.net/wmedia/resources/09_07_08_parks.wma.   You can hear the following testimony relevant to HR 481 (all times approximate):

• At one minute: Mr. Oberstar introduces the legislation
• At 21:00: Dan Wenk, Deputy Director, NPS testifies about a change to H.R. 481 to preserve the newly acquired willing seller authority
• At 56:00: Bruce’s  testimony
• At 1:07:15: Discussion about willing seller authority and costs for developing the trail
• At 1:13:40: Discussion about land acquisition and H.R. 1912

Tomorrow (7/29) at 10am ET, the bill is scheduled to be “marked up” along with other legislation in front of the entire Natural Resources Committee.  You may watch this process via a live webcast at http://resourcescommittee.house.gov.

Currently, H.R. 481 has 6 co-sponsors, including Rep Ellison, Keith [MN-5]; Rep Massa, Eric J. J. [NY-29]; Rep McCollum, Betty [MN-4]; Rep Paulsen, Erik [MN-3]; Rep Peterson, Collin C. [MN-7]; and Rep Walz, Timothy J. [MN-1].  While in Washington, Bruce was also able to meet with many other Congressional offices about picking up more co-sponsors of H.R. 481 and S. 553.  We are still waiting for movement of S. 553 in the Senate.

You can help by asking your Representative and Senators to sign onto H.R. 481 and S. 553.