Rep. Doggett Testifies on Need to Expand the San Antonio Missions National Park Boundary

Rep. Doggett's full testimony, asprepared for delivery, follows below:

I am here today solely on behalf of anexisting national park and an important one— the San Antonio Missions NationalPark. I appreciate this opportunity from you, from Ranking Member Grijalva andmy colleagues.

The Spanish Missions in San Antonio are really a unique treasure for Texans andfor all of America. The Missions National Historic Park preserves the largestcollection of Spanish colonial resources anywhere in America. It is aneducational, historical and cultural resource that is each year bringing over amillion people to enjoy and learn from it. The park is important to theunderstanding of Texas and of the development of the United States, and ofcourse it has a very strong positive economic impact for San Antonio and BexarCounty.

HR 885 is a bill that would expand theboundary of the park, as shown on the map, by 137 acres. It has the support ofall five of us who represent any portion of Bexar County. Most people of courseknow San Antonio from the Alamo. The Alamo is not on the map that I have here,it is to the north of that area. You can see Mission Concepcion, Mission SanJose which is on the map —youcan see the green area that represents the small amount, the 137 acres, thatwould be added to the existing park.

Thanks to the leadership of Judge Nelson Wolff there is a now a trail calledMission Reach so that you can get on downtown at about the Alamo and walk orbike all the way down to Mission Espada as this trail is completed in the very nearfuture. After Mission San Jose, where we will be celebrating with thousands ofpeople Mission Fest in a couple of Sundays, you get to Mission San Juan. Thatmission has just been restored with private funds — it's morenarrow than our hearing room. It's a beautiful white stucco building, beautifulwith its simplicity and goes back to a time that the Spanish were interactingwith the Native Americans in San Antonio. A tremendous amount of privateresources have gone into the restoration of Mission San Juan, Mission San Joseand now soon to be completed Mission Espada.

This bill is one that enjoys the supportof the Archdiocese of San Antonio. I was just recently with Archbishop GustavoGarcia-Siller and Father David Garcia as we re-opened Mission San Juan. Therehas been other involvement of local officials. The line just north of MissionSan Juan is our new veterans memorial bridge with the support of state Rep. JoeFarias. The legislation also enjoys the support of the National ParksConservation Association, a group called "Los Compadres," which is a group ofcitizens throughout the area that helps raise resources to promote the park,and the National Park Service.

This committee is familiar with thislegislation because it has considered similar legislation before. And what I'vetried to do in the bipartisan bill before you today is to include everyprovision that this committee wanted such as: no federal purchase of land, nocondemnation, that type of thing, with one exception. And that is that the billas filed includes a study to explore the possibility of expanding the park toinclude some old ranch lands that were associated with the Missions. Iunderstand that there is some objection on the committee to that and let me sayour goal is to get this additional 137 acres connected to the park. If thecommittee feels that the study stands in the way of passing this bipartisanbill please amend it and give us the rest of the bill.

This bill will not become law withoutthe support of Sen. Cornyn and Sen. Cruz over in the United States Senate. Ibelieve it will have that, but as you know they talk longer and take a littlelonger to consider things over there, and it would be really helpful to us withthis broad support to get it over to them as soon as possible.

I served on this committee myself underChairman Hansen many years ago. I understand the views are as strongly felt asthey are this morning on different issues concerning natural resources beforethe committee. But I believe we have a bill that committee understands; it's amodest step that will really enhance a national treasure and I hope you canmove on it promptly. I stand ready to answer any questions you might have and Ithink some of my colleagues will be submitting written testimony in support ofthe bill aware that the committee is very familiar with itsprovisions.