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STATEMENT BY CHARLES MCILWAINE, VICE CHAIRMAN, AMERICAN RECREATION 

 COALITION, AND VICE PRESIDENT FOR CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS OF THE 

 COLEMAN COMPANY, INC., ON A PROPOSED EXCISE TAX ON RECREATION AND 

 CERTAIN OTHER PRODUCTS TO FUND THE PROPOSED TEAMING WITH WILDLIFE 

 PROGRAM BEFORE THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES COMMITTEE ON 

 RESOURCES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON FISHERIES, WILDLIFE AND OCEANS, JUNE 6, 

 1996. 



Good morning and thank you for this opportunity to appear before you today on 

 behalf of the American Recreation Coalition. My name is Charles Mcllwaine and I 

 serve as Vice Chairman of the American Recreation Coalition, a national federation of 

 more than 125 corporations and associations actively involved in satisfying the nation's 

 needs for quality outdoor experiences. I am the Vice President for Corporate 

 Communications of The Coleman Company, Inc., which is based in Golden, Colorado, 

 and is one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of outdoor recreation equipment in 

 the world. The Coleman Company has played an active role in the American 

 Recreation Coalition since its inception. As the Chairman may know, recreation-related 

 spending in America today exceeds $300 billion annually. 



In some respects, I find my appearance here today quite ironic. Just over eleven 

 years ago, I testified down the hall before the Committee on Merchant Marine and 

 Fisheries on funding non-game wildlife programs. Members who took part in that 

 hearing continue to be involved in this issue: the current chairman of this committee. 

 Representative Don Young, and now-Senator John Breaux, who had just experienced 

 notable success in the creation of what we now refer to as the Wallop-Breaux Fund. At 

 that time, I underscored the recreation community's commitment to good management 

 of our natural resources, including non-game species, but emphasized that an excise 

 tax was the wrong mechanism to fund a non-game wildlife grants program. My 

 message was understood and shared by Messrs. Young and Breaux then, and they 

 made clear their hopes that voluntary means to generate revenues could be found, 

 specifically encouraging consideration of what was referred to as semi-postal stamps. 



My earlier testimony further described the major policy and program changes 

 underway in public recreation programs, changes which had precipitated the creation of 

 the President's Commission on Americans Outdoors that very year. The late Chairman 

 of The Coleman Company, Sheldon Coleman, served in a very active capacity on that 

 important body. One of the key changes we forecasted involved recreation fees, with 

 those who are the beneficiaries of specific public services and facilities expected to 

 assume a greater share of these costs. The recreation community supports today, as 

 we did then, the user fee philosophy and we have been working actively with federal 

 and state agencies and the Congress to reduce the jeopardy recreation programs face 

 when they rely almost solely upon the political allocation of resources through the 

 appropriation process. 



