71 



District, and to enter into an interim agreement with the District 

 for management of these lands prior to the finalization of the sale. 

 Finally, S. 854 directs that the funds received from this sale be 

 utilized, without appropriation, for acquisition of additional lands 

 at existing units of the National Wildlife Refuge System within the 

 State of Florida (i.e. Lower Suwannee and Key Deer). 



Last year I testified before this Subcommittee in support of the 

 exchange proposal in principle, subject to extensive changes in the 

 previous legislation (S. 2758, 99th Congress). All of our concerns 

 have been resolved in the legislation now before the Subcommittee, 

 although we do have two technical suggestions on matters which have 

 just came to our attention. 



As I am sure succeeding witnesses will explain in detail, Aerojet 

 plans to utilize the lands it would acquire in Nevada for rocket 

 testing and assembly work. This should contribute significantly to 

 the Nevada economy. At the same time, we believe it would not have 

 adverse environmental impacts. 



We assisted in the preparation of the legislation and the 

 implementing contract as a drafting service — hence this is not a 

 Departmental proposal. At the same time, we undertook environmental 

 evaluations to ensure that our drafting the proposal would not 

 result in conflicts with our responsibilities under the Endangered 

 Species Act and other environmental laws. There is a wealth of 

 environmental data available, particularly on the Coyote Spring 

 Valley tract, arising from the extensive studies done of the area in 



