1030 



for their fine performance in the drafting of this bill. They have been 

 engaged in a 4-month marathon to finish the bill before the summer's 

 conventions. 



I particularly wish to thank John Hussey, Jerry Sauer, Bud Walsh, 

 Lynn Sutcliffe, Bob Joost, and Gerry Kovach of the Commerce Com- 

 mittee staif, and Steve Perles of my own staff for the excellent job 

 they have done in the drafting of this legislation. 



The Coastal Zone Management Act amendments, as presently 

 drafted, is an outstanding piece of legislation. The quality of this bill 

 reflects the high degree of cooperation exercised by the House, the Sen- 

 ate, and the Executive Department. The fact that we have a $1,200,- 

 000,000 impact aid program which is supported by the administration 

 is testimony to the high degree of cooperation between the legislative 

 and executive branches in the preparation of this bill. 



The impact assistance provisions consist of $800 million in loans and 

 $400 million in formula grants. The purpose of the loan program is to 

 provide front-end assistance to municipalities who will be facing 

 impacts from coastal energy facilities. It is expected that in most cases 

 the tax revenues from the energy facilities and surrounding activities 

 will be sufficient to repay the loans and guarantees. 



Should tax revenues be insufficient for that purpose, the indebtedness 

 will be automatically forgiven. The formula grants must be applied 

 first to retire local, then State bonds. Remaining formula grant funds 

 may be used either to meet environmental needs or for capital con- 

 struction programs where it is anticipated that the tax revenues will 

 not be sufficient to pay off the cost of the facilities. Included in th© 

 $400 million formula grant package is $50 million for planning pur- 

 poses. 



I wish to point out that the indebtedness which States and munici- 

 palities can incur under this program is Federal indebtedness. We 

 have gone to great lengths to insure that States and municipalities 

 will not have to pledge their full faith and credit or receive these loans 

 and guarantees. Nothing need be pledged by a State or municipality 

 to receive this assistance except future tax revenues to be derived as a 

 result of the energy activity. 



The term "solely" in the conference substitute means solely in the 

 sense of exclusively. No other provision of Federal law and no provi- 

 sion of any State or local law shall, to the extent of Federal constitu- 

 tional authority, govern the making of any loan under this paragraph. 

 It is the intent of the conferees to remove any impediments which may 

 prohibit, inhibit, or impede a State or unit of general purpose local 

 government which satisfies the prerequisite, terms, conditions, and re- 

 quirements of this act and regulations under this act — from borrowing 

 under subsection (d) . 



This legislaltion is of critical importance to my home State, Alaska. 

 The first Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas lease sale recently took 

 place in the northern Gulf of Alaska. By the time the authorizations 

 in this legislation have concluded in 1986 Alaska will have more acre- 

 age under lease than any other State in the Union. Without the 

 financial assistance provided for by this bill, the State of Alaska wall 

 not be able to amass the front-end capital needed to construct facilities 

 for coping with the onshore impact of Outer Continental Shelf oil 

 and gas development. 



