Presidio Pileup

What began last year as a modest measure to enhance and protect two worthy parcels of land for public use became, by the time Congress recessed early this month, a lesson in how to make a legislative mess on a grand scale.

Federal help is necessary to develop the San Francisco Presidio, a former Army base, as a recreational facility. The land is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, under federal control. But supporters need congressional approval to create the Presidio Trust, a public-private foundation that would finance the facility’s operating costs by leasing some of the base’s 800 buildings. The plan is creative, cost-effective and has bipartisan support in Congress.

But the Presidio Trust plan has been held hostage for the last several months by members loading up the bill with dozens of special-interest amendments involving matters far from the Presidio. What began as a 20-page measure ballooned to more than 400 pages. Among the amendments that should be rejected, for they do not serve the public interest, are proposals to reduce federal grazing fees and largely eliminate public input and environmental review in the leasing of grazing land; to shrink the boundaries of the Shenandoah National Park, and to extend by an unprecedented 15 years--and without competitive bidding--the exclusive lease that one company holds to cut timber on federal lands in Alaska. The bill was so top-heavy, it rolled to a dead stop before the recess.

A provision to authorize federal funds to purchase the Sterling forest, 20,000 acres of woodland and lakes straddling the New York-New Jersey border, was broken out separately. Like the Presidio proposal, the Sterling forest provision has wide support. The federal share of a state, federal and private financing package to purchase the land from a Swiss insurance company is $17.5 million. Late last month, the House authorized those funds; the Senate should follow suit. And, surely, leaders from both parties can see the wisdom of trimming the pork off the Presidio bill and passing it quickly, come September.