386 



one who might be in line to head up the Coastal Zone Management Ad- 

 visory Committee. I know of no other person in the Congress who has 

 worked so diligently and so long on tliis issue. 



I would like to ask the gentleman what assurance he can provide 

 that the members of the Coastal Zone Management Advisory Com- 

 mittee will not be entirely dominated by those people who own property 

 or riparian rights or who have a beneficial interest and beneficial 

 rights along the coastal land ? 



"WTiat assurance can the gentleman provide that this Advisory Com- 

 mittee which has a great deal to do about policy will not be dominated 

 by those who have property rights rather than those who are interested 

 solely in the public interest ? 



Mv. Lexnox. I can say to my friend that that particular query or 

 question was not developed in the hearings related to the AdWsory 

 Committee. 



It gives a National Advisory Committee to the Secretary. It would 

 not be of an advisory capacity if on the State, county, or municipal 

 level. 



I can only express the hope — and I am sure the majority of the Mem- 

 bers of this House do — ^that this committee of 10 will be constituted 

 primarily in substantial majority of people who are interested pri- 

 marily not only in keeping what we have, but in reclaiming that which 

 'has been damaged in the past. 



However, if you say that anyone owning property or having a fee 

 •simple interest in property, who is living in the coastal zone, you are 

 immediately going to knock out over 66 million people who live in the 

 coastal zone areas that we have defined. 



I would say to you I will write a letter, assuming that this legisla- 

 tion becomes law — I will immediately write a letter to the Secretary in 

 which I will express my strong view that the majority of those mem- 

 bers of the Advisory Committee ought to be people who do not have a 

 land interest. 



I can think of a man who may have a fishing shack somewhere on 

 one of your lakeshores. He could not be a member. Or some man who 

 might have a cottage, a small cottage along the 100.000 miles of beach- 

 land in this country — he could not be on this committee. We have to 

 have a balance, ancl we will do what we can to get that. I assure you 

 I have the same feelings you do about it. 



!Mr. Vanik. I thank the gentleman. 



Mr. Lennox. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman 

 from Virginia (!Mr. Downing), a member of the subcommittee and 

 one of the prime sponsor of this bill. 



Mr. DowxixG. Mr. Chairman, I rise in full and enthusiastic support 

 of this legislation. It is probably one of the most important ecological 

 bills that has or will come to us during this session of Congress. 



Our coastal zones are deteriorating badly and rapidly and I think 

 it is a proper obligation of the Federal Government to assist those 

 States in halting this decay. 



If this bill becomes the law of the land, as I hope it will, most of the 

 credit must belong to the distinguished gentleman from Xorth Carolina 

 (Mr. Alton Lennon) who has worked long and hard to bring this 

 into being. This is not his only monument of achievement; he has 



