Robert P. Casey Jr.
Casey, Kanjorski Applaud Senate Passage of Bill to Extend Funding for Local National Heritage Corridor
January 15, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC- U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) and Congressman Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) today applauded Senate passage of a bill that would extend funding for the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor until fiscal year 2012 enabling the completion of important projects for Northeastern Pennsylvania. The purpose of the Corridor is to conserve cultural and natural resources in the five-county region of Pennsylvania, including Luzerne and Carbon counties.
“For years, the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor has been at the center of agricultural, industrial and recreational activity in the Mid-Atlantic United States,” said Senator Casey. “I am pleased that my Senate colleagues recognized the importance of this corridor and I want to thank Congressman Kanjorski for his work to ensure its continued success.”
“I applaud Senator Casey for helping to pass this legislation, which I have worked on for years," said Congressman Kanjorski. "This is an important step in helping to ensure that the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Commission can help develop more projects in Northeastern Pennsylvania that will conserve our cultural and natural resources. Protecting this corridor is an issue that I have fought for, as I introduced a similar bill in the House and testified before a Congressional Committee advocating for that legislation. I look forward to supporting this legislation as it comes to the House.”
The bill passed today would reauthorize federal financial support for the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor through fiscal year 2012. Authorization for the Corridor expired in 2007. Ensuring federal support through the National Park Service will allow the Corridor to continue to leverage other federal and non-federal funds and initiate additional projects which will benefit Northeastern Pennsylvania.
The legislation also designates a corridor stretching from Newport, RI through Pennsylvania and on to Yorktown, VA as the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail. Finally, the bill reauthorizes the Civil War Battlefield Preservation Program helps to restore and protect civil war battlefields that are in danger of being lost to development.
Congressman Kanjorski introduced a similar bill specific to the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor in the House on October 25, 2007 to extend funding for the Corridor and enable the completion of important local projects. On June 5, 2008, he testified before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands at a hearing on his legislation.
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