A Resolution:
Resolution in Opposition to the American Heritage Rivers Initiative and Funding Therefor
Whereas the American Heritage Rivers Initiative program proclaimed by Executive Order on September 11,
1997, is similar in most important respects to the National, or American, Heritage Area program, which was rejected by the 103rd and 104th Congresses; andWhereas the implementation of the American Heritage Rivers program by the President’s Council on Environmental Quality and twelve other federal agencies violates the separation of powers and is a usurpation of the legislative power by the executive magistrate; and,
Whereas federal interference along the Columbia and Cuyahoga rivers has resulted in people being driven from their homes: and,
Whereas the establishment of a river staff is contrary to the sworn Congressional testimony of September 24, 1997 wherein Kathleen A. McGinty, the Executive Director of the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, stated that there would be no federal expenditures or increase in staff to implement the program; and,
Whereas the structure of the American Heritage Rivers program is too nebulously defined to frame knowledgeable debate about its potential problems or merits, if any; and,
Whereas, some of the federal agencies involved—the Environmental Protection Agency, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Army Corps of Engineers, Forest Service—regularly take private property without compensation, to the detriment of individual landowners and local communities; and,
Whereas the structure and goals of the American Heritage Rivers program appear to have the potential of being destructive of private property owners rights and local control; and
Whereas the structure and goals of the American Heritage Rivers program appear to be a device to impose national zoning on local governments and private property owners, which is clearly unconstitutional
Now be it therefore resolved by the __________________________
Section 1. That the _______________________________is opposed to the designation of any American Heritage River in the State of New Jersey, including particularly the Delaware, Passaic, Rahway and Raritan rivers;
Section 2. That the ___________________________________ requests that the entire geographic area within the political boundaries of ___________________ be excluded from the designation;
Section 3. That the _____________________________________ supports the enactment of H.R. 1842, a bill by Representative Helen Chenoweth that would withhold funding for and terminate the implementation of the American Heritage Rivers Initiative;
Section 4. And that the Clerk of the ___________________
is hereby directed to transmit copies of this resolution to:The Honorable William Jefferson Clinton, President
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, DC 20500Honorable Christine Todd Whitman, Governor, State of New Jersey,
State House, Trenton, NJ 08625Honorable Frank Lautenberg,
United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510Honorable Robert Torricelli,
United States Senate, Washington, DC 20510Honorable ___________________
House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515Honorable Kathleen A. McGinty, Chair, Council on Environmental Quality,
Old Executive Office Building, Room 360, Washington, DC 20501
Go to Letter
Go to background piece