Entitled the American Heritage
Rivers Initiative, the administration program was first
announced by President Clinton in his February State of
the Union address and then published May 19 in the
Federal Register.
"I will designate 10 American Heritage
Rivers to help communities along side them revitalize
their waterfronts and clean up pollution in the
rivers," said Clinton in his address.
However, Congress had already rejected a more
grandiose version of the plan, the American Heritage
Areas Act, in the final day's of last year's session, as
a threat to property rights and as a not-so- disguised
push for national land-use planning.
The rejected bill asked Congress to designate
vast stretches of the country as "heritage
zones" based on historical, cultural or natural
characteristics. Included as targets for designation were
a number of river systems.
Unlike its predecessor, the American Rivers
program is projected by the administration to operate
only within the Executive Branch, without Congressional
approval or oversight. Funds and personnel would be
reassigned away from Congressionally
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designated tasks.
The rivers designated as "American
Heritage Rivers" by the president would, under the
initiative, receive special federal support in the form
of grants, increased services, and greater access to
federal programs.
Rivers expected to be on the list, scheduled
for announcement later this summer, include the Hudson,
the Columbia, the Colorado, and the entire Mississippi,
from its headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico.
Helen Chenoweth (R-ID), chief sponsor of the
legislation introduced in Congress this week, called the
Clinton initiative "the most recent assault by the
Clinton administration on private property rights, States
rights, and western values," when she first objected
to it in a floor speech June 4.
"Just before the Memorial Day work period
the Council on Environmental Quality, an unauthorized
agency existing on misappropriated funds, I might add,
published this proposal in the Federal Register,"
she said.
Noting that the proposal appeared May 19,
1997, Chenoweth said that "although law requires a
90-day public comment period, this comment period ends
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