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. I am pleased to have Senators Baucus, Feinstein, Durbin, Roberts and Inouye join me as original cosponsors on this significant legislation.
Mr. President, this bill was reported favorably by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and approved by unanimous consent during the 108th Congress. A similar bill was introduced in the other body by Representative James R. McGovern, with 15 cosponsors, but was not reported by the Resources Committee. I hope we can pass this again quickly in the Senate and move the bill in the House of Representatives.
You may remember, Mr. President, that 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 existed regarding the treatment of fossils by federal land management agencies, and emphasized Congress's concerns that a lack of appropriate standards would lead to the deterioration or loss of fossils, which are valuable scientific resources. Unfortunately, Mr. President, that situation remains the case today.
In the past year alone, there have been compelling finds of fossils that are helping us unlock the mysteries of the past from the earth, whether violent tectonic cataclysms or depletion of oxygen in the oceans and consequent drastic changes in species. The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), a bipartisan non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and enhancing National Parks, recently called for "stronger laws, better enforcement, and better education programs ... to more fully protect these valuable [fossil] relics." In its Fall 2004 issue of National Parks, the article described the discovery at Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota, in July 2003, of fossilized remains of a five-foot tall hornless rhinoceros, a collie-sized horse, and a foot-tall, deer-like mammal.
National Parks are the home of many extraordinary fossil discoveries already, such as the graveyards of 20-million-year old camels and rhinos at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in Nebraska, the only pygmy island-dwelling mammoth at Channel Islands National Park in California; and tropical dinosaurs in what are now the arid lands of the Painted Desert of southern Arizona.
Besides the National Park Service, other federal land management agencies have a number of regulations and directives on paleontological resources, but they are not consistent and there is no clear statutory language providing direction in protecting and curating fossils. I would like to commend to my colleagues two reports recently published by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), which we know as an impartial, non-partisan legislative research service that provides analysis for Congress. The CRS American Law Division published two reports entitled "Federal Management and Protection of Fossil Resources on Federal Lands" and "Paleontological Resources Protection Act: Proposal for the Management and Protection of Fossil Resources Located on Federal Lands."
These two reports analyze the status and activities of federal agencies with paleontological responsibilities, the statutory authorities for fossils, the case law supporting them, and the bills recently introduced on fossils such as S. 546 in the 108th Congress. The reports point out that several federal agencies have management authority for the protection of fossil resources on the lands under their jurisdiction -- the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's U.S. Forest Service. The report also points out that the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of Defense, and Smithsonian Institution have some fossil responsibilities. The reports further find that agency enforcement and prosecution policies differ greatly and there is only limited and scattered authority for federal management and protection of fossil resources on federal lands.
The report concludes that the scattered authorities result in case law on fossil protection that is not well developed and not necessarily consistent. The cases do not provide clear case precedent and are not necessarily applicable to broader protection, regulation, management, and marketing issues.
Both reports conclude that there is an absence of uniform regulations for paleontological resources on federal lands -- as shown by an absence of precise uniform definitions of key terms -- and that there is no comprehensive statute or management policy for the protection and management of fossils on federal lands.
The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act embodies the principles recommended by an interagency group in a 2000 report to Congress entitled "Assessment of Fossil Management on Federal and Indian Lands." The bill 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 and affirms that reasonable access to fossil resources should be provided for scientific, educational, and recreational purposes. The bill acknowledges the value of amateur collecting and provides an exception for casual collecting of invertebrate fossils, but protects vertebrate fossils found on federal lands under a system of permits. The fossil bill does not restrict access of the interested public to fossils on public lands but rather will help create opportunities for involvement. For example, there are many amateur paleontologists volunteering to assist in the excavation and curation of fossils on National Park lands already.
Finally, 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 because they are very different types of resources. This bill covers only paleontological remains - fossils on federal lands.
As we look toward the future, public access to fossil resources will take on a new meaning, as digital images of fossils become available worldwide. Discoveries in paleontology are made more frequently than we realize. They shape how we learn about the world around us. In January of this year, Science Express, the on-line version of the journal Science, reported two studies using paleontological data to understand the causes of the "Great Dying," or mass extinctions that occurred about 250 million years ago in the Permian-Triassic period. The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act would create a legacy for the production of scientific knowledge for future generations.
Mr. President, the protections offered in this Act are not new. Federal land management agencies already 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. The National Park Service reported 721 incidents of vandalism; and visitors annually take up to 12 tons of petrified wood from Petrified Forest National Park, a fact that has lead the NPCA to place the Petrified National Forest on its "Ten Most Endangered National Parks" lists in 2000 and 2001.
Congress has not provided a clear statute stating the value of paleontological resources to our nation, as has been provided for archeological resources. Fossils are too valuable to be left within the general theft provisions that are difficult to prosecute, and they are too valuable to the education of our children not to ensure public access. We need to work together to make sure that we 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.
