Mr. President, I rise today to introduce The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act to protect and preserve the nation's important fossil record for the benefit of our citizens. Vertebrate fossils are rare and valuable natural resources that are threatened by a growing commercial market which is being supplied, in part, by the illegal collection of fossil specimens. This Act establishes a comprehensive national policy for preserving and managing paleontological resources found on federal lands. It provides uniformity to the patchwork of statutes and regulations that currently exist, and it ensures that the public will have educational and scientific access to this part of their geological and biological past.
Mr. President, I would like to emphasize that this bill in no way affects archaeological or cultural resources under the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 or the Native American Graves Protection and Rehabilitation Act. They are exempted. This bill covers paleontological remains - fossils on federal lands only.
Fossils are the remains, imprints and traces of once-living organisms preserved in the earth's crust. Fossils of vertebrates are the remains of animals with a backbone or spinal column, such as dinosaur bones, sabertooth tiger teeth, or imprints of bear paws and mammoth tusks. The fossil record is our only evidence that life existed on earth 3.5 billion years ago. Fossils show us that dinosaurs evolved about 220 million years ago, and that four-legged creatures first walked on land about 350 million years ago. Fossils tell us how the physical earth has changed over time, how the climate has warmed and cooled, and how the mountains have been lifted up from the ocean depths. Fossils can also explain how living things have responded to changing conditions, such as why mass extinctions of species have occurred at certain times in our planet's history.
In 1999, Congress requested that the Secretary of the Interior review and report on the federal policy concerning paleontological resources on federal lands. In its request, Congress noted that no unified federal policy exists regarding the treatment of fossils by federal land management agencies, and our concern was that the lack of appropriate standards would lead to the deterioration or loss of fossils, which are valuable scientific resources.
In response, seven federal agencies and the Smithsonian Institution released a report in May 2000 entitled "Assessment of Fossil Management on Federal and Indian Lands." The report presented seven governing principles for the management of fossils on federal lands. These principles are that fossils on federal lands are rare and a part of America's heritage; that effective stewardship requires accurate information and inventories; that penalties for fossil theft should be strengthened; and that federal fossil collections should be preserved and available for research and public education.
The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act embodies these principles, and provides the paleontological equivalent of protections found in the Archeological Resources Preservation Act. The bill finds that fossil resources on federal lands are an irreplaceable part of the heritage of the United States. It affirms that reasonable access to fossil resources should be provided for scientific, educational, and recreational purposes. The bill acknowledges the value of amateur collecting, but protects vertebrate fossils under a system of permits.
You might wonder why such a bill is needed. Who would want to take these fossils, and what would a person do with them? Let me give you an example. On September 24, 2000, four individuals at Badlands National Park in South Dakota collected 1,700 fossil specimens that represented a variety of different types of animals. This area was scheduled for a scientific survey in July 2002, but because these four individuals removed the fossils from their context, scientists could no longer ascertain the position of the fossils in the layers of rock, and the scientific and educational value of the fossils was destroyed. So what happened to these individuals? To be honest, Mr. President, not much. Each one of the four was fined between $250 and $1,000 for the theft of 1,700 pieces of our paleontological history.
You might think the fines were a lot of money until you realize how much fossils are worth. Trade in fossils is big business. With the popularity of paleontology programs on the Discovery Channel and movies like Jurassic Park, people are starting their own collections at home, and corporations are buying fossils as investments, similar to the purchase of works of art. For example, the complete skeleton of a T-Rex was recently sold for $8.6 million at auction to the Field Museum of Chicago.
Paleontological resources can be sold on the market for a hefty price, and they are being stolen from public lands without regard to science and education. Even worse, Mr. President, is the fact that the people who steal fossils aren't being held responsible for their actions and there is no incentive to stop the theft in the future. Less than one percent of organisms become fossils, and they are the key to understanding evolutionary patterns and processes. We need to protect these resources before it's too late.
Mr. President, the protections I offer in this Act are not new. Federal land management agencies have individual regulations prohibiting theft of government property. However, the reality is that U.S. Attorneys are reluctant to prosecute cases involving fossil theft because they are difficult. We in Congress have not provided a clear statute stating the value of paleontological resources to our nation, as we did for archeological resources. Fossils are too valuable to be left within the general theft provisions that are impossible to defend in court, and they are too valuable to the education of our children to not ensure public access. We need to work together to make sure that we in Congress fulfill our responsibility as stewards of public lands, and as protectors of our nation's natural resources.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record immediately after my remarks.
