BILL REQ. #:  H-3001.1 

Read first time 01/17/12.   Referred to Committee on General Government Appropriations & Oversight.

     TO THE HONORABLE BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND TO THE HONORABLE TOM VILSACK, SECRETARY OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE:
     We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:
     WHEREAS, The Columbia river gorge provides perhaps the most dramatic, historic, and beautiful division between any two states in the union, with nearly three hundred thousand acres of land in Washington and Oregon, from just east of the Vancouver/Portland area to the Deschutes river, having been designated as a national scenic area; and
     WHEREAS, The Congress of the United States has recognized, with the passage of the Columbia river gorge national scenic act in 1986, that the management and preservation of the treasures of the Columbia river gorge area are of such upmost national importance that Washington, Oregon, and the regional counties of the gorge area must work together under a federally mandated model to ensure the long-term conservation and economic sustainability of the area; and
     WHEREAS, The United States Congress has determined that the Columbia river gorge area and the protection and enhancement of its scenic, cultural, recreational, and natural resources merits, due to its national significance, greater protections than Washington, Oregon, and the local counties can provide and warrants relatively uniform land use protections across the various political jurisdictions of the area; and
     WHEREAS, The Columbia river gorge area is one of the few, if not the only, areas in the United States where the federal government has mandated involvement with the local land use decision-making processes and outcomes; and
     WHEREAS, The area encompassed by the Columbia river gorge national scenic area, and thereby under the authority of the act and the resulting Columbia river gorge commission, is comprised of over one hundred fifteen thousand acres of land managed by the United States forest service, which is roughly forty percent of the entirety of the affected area; and
     WHEREAS, The Washington state legislature recognizes the value and importance of not just the Columbia river gorge area, but the unique efforts that have been undertaken by Washington, Oregon, and the regional counties under both the Columbia river gorge national scenic act and through the Columbia river gorge commission; and
     WHEREAS, Although the Columbia river gorge commission is worthy in its mission and capabilities, the unprecedented fiscal challenges faced by Washington puts the state in the position where it is simply unable to provide the level of resources necessary for the Columbia river gorge commission to adequately fulfill its mission and services to the two states and the Columbia river gorge area; and
     WHEREAS, Due to the terms of the compact between Washington and Oregon that governs the Columbia river gorge commission, one state cannot provide funding to the commission greater than the funding provided by the other state, making it legally impossible for Oregon to volunteer a greater share of the funding to ensure the immediate and long-term viability of the Columbia river gorge commission; and
     WHEREAS, Even if Oregon could legally provide greater funds, it would be inequitable for Washington to pursue a path that requires another state to find additional funding for an entity that provides services equally to both states; and
     WHEREAS, Federal recognition of the Columbia river gorge commission, in the form of funding, as an entity created due to federal law that achieves federal outcomes of national significance would allow the commission to continue to function at the operational level necessary to accomplish its mission and the goals of the Columbia river gorge national scenic act; and
     WHEREAS, The provision of federal funding for the Columbia river gorge commission at this critical juncture would forestall other potentially negative outcomes for the commission, the affected states and counties, and federal interests in the form of compact breeches by the states, potential litigation before the United States supreme court as the ultimate arbiter of interstate compact disputes, negotiations regarding the disestablishment of the commission as envisioned in 16 U.S.C. Sec. 5441(e)(1), and the end of an important governance model that has successfully operated to balance conflicting interests and needs for nearly twenty-five years;
     NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the federal government, in recognition of the states' inability to provide adequate funding to the Columbia river gorge commission, provide a level of federal funding to the Columbia river gorge commission that allows the Columbia river gorge commission to fulfill its mission and goals.
     BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United States, Tom Vilsack, Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.