51 



opportunity of recovering one's investment plus a reasonable profit 

 on it. 



We would also like to see a clearer statement in the bill that rev- 

 enue to the government is secondary to protection of the resource 

 and continued quality service to the public. Thank you, Mr. Chair- 

 man. 



Mr. Hansen. Thank you, Mr. Staveley. Mr. Brown. 



STATEMENT OF DAVID BROWN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

 AMERICA OUTDOORS 



Mr. Brown. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is David L. 

 Brown, Executive Director of America Outdoors. I have provided a 

 written statement for the record and will summarize those re- 

 marks. 



America Outdoors is a national trade association representing 

 the interests of over 1,600 companies that provide professional out- 

 fitter and guide services to more than 2 million Americans each 

 year. And hopefully none of these river running companies have 

 taken a position on your Utah wilderness bill that you described 

 in your opening remarks. 



Mr. Hansen. Just about half of them is all. 



Mr. Brown. Well, I hope not. In fact, the only comment that we 

 know or letter that we know about was written in support of that 

 bill by the past president of this organization, and we certainly 

 haven't taken a position on that. 



Mr. Hansen. I hope they believe in repentance. 



Mr. Brown. We wish to thank the subcommittee and the staff for 

 its openness and diligence in developing this legislation. We very 

 much appreciate the opportunity to represent the views of the out- 

 fitting industry before you today. 



Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, while we be- 

 lieve that the current concessions policy has been successful in pro- 

 viding high quality services to the public, we also believe that it 

 can be made more cost effective and efficient. H.R. 2028 proposes 

 some positive steps in that area. 



However, we believe the bill focuses largely on raising fees to the 

 government in some ways that may disable the incentives for high- 

 ly motivated concessioners to offer quality services to the public, 

 and I want to touch on some of those in my comments. For that 

 reason, we cannot support H.R. 2028 as written, but wish to con- 

 tinue working with the subcommittee to improve the bill. 



In general, we also believe the goal of concessions policy should 

 be to enable agencies to identify concessioners who deliver quality 

 services to the public, protect the resources, and provide a fair re- 

 turn to the government. The policy should then allow the agencies 

 to retain those concessioners for as long as they meet those quali- 

 fications. 



There are some examples of the product of this performance- 

 based renewal policy in my written testimony with some photos of 

 the investments that have been made under a 20-year period by 

 permittees and concessioners who have been able to reinvest their 

 profits and with the understanding that their permits would be re- 

 newed based on good performance. 



