TheWeekInCongress

TheWeekInCongress.com

Week Ending December 10, 2004

HR 2119 To provide for the conveyance of Federal lands, improvements, equipment, and resource materials at the Oxford Research Station in Granville County, North Carolina, to the State of North Carolina

BRIEF

The bill would transfer an unused research station in North Carolina to the State of North Carolina for no compensation.

Bill supporter Rep. GK Butterfield (D-NC-1^st) explained the history of the bill and its need; “The Oxford Research Station was established in 1912 as a crop and forestry research station. The station facilities include computerized curing barns, office facilities, a shop building, several equipment shelters, a tobacco evaluation facility and underground irrigation systems.

“For 92 years, the station's marquee programs have been tobacco-related. Accomplishments at the Oxford Tobacco Research Station include fertility investigations concerning tobacco plants' nutrition; development of the first tobacco varieties with resistance to Granvill Wilt and black shank disease; the invention of tobacco bulk curing barns; genetic studies to develop new varieties resistance to Granville Wilt and black shank diseases; evaluation of crop breeding lines, curing experiments, computerized monitoring and control of humidity and temperatures; and many others.

“As long a list of accomplishments that the station has accumulated in its 92 years of service to American agriculture, the station now stands unused by USDA, and American taxpayers are still paying for upkeep and maintenance. An unofficial estimate, Mr. Speaker, from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service for fiscal year 2005 is that the station will cost $227,000 for basic upkeep.

“Mr. Speaker, one man's trash is another man's treasure. USDA does not want or need the Oxford Research Station, but the North Carolina Department of Agriculture does. If the facility is conveyed to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, the State will move its entire biological control program to the station. The State intends to use the quarantine facilities to research invasive species without risk of introducing them to the national environment of our State.

‘Among the species to be studied include the hemlock wooly adelgid, an insect that has been identified in Public Law 108-148, the President's Healthy Forest Initiative, as a forest-damaging insect. The facility will also research control methods of the Sudden Oak Death Fungus.

“The people of North Carolina, Mr. Speaker, would be grateful for the passage of this legislation.”

Sponsor: {Rep. G. K. Butterfield.} (D-NC-1^st)

Vote: Passed House by voice vote (Oct. 5, 2004), Passed Senate by Unanimous Consent (Dec.7, 2004), Signed by President Bush as Public Law 108-460.

Cost to the taxpayers: ‘CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 2119 would not significantly affect the federal budget. Enacting the bill would not affect direct spending or revenues. H.R. 2119 would direct the Secretary of Agriculture to give 4.28 acres of federal land in North Carolina to that state. According to the Forest Service, the land to be conveyed currently generates no significant receipts and is not expected to do so over the next 10 years; hence, CBO estimates that conveying it would not affect offsetting receipts (a credit against direct spending). We also estimate that federal spending to complete the proposed conveyance would not exceed $50,000 in 2005’