78R12870 CLE-D

By:  Gallego                                                    H.C.R. No. 208



CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
	WHEREAS, Big Bend National Park was officially established on 
June 12, 1944, six months after Texas Governor Coke Stevenson 
signed a deed of cession giving the National Park Service (NPS), 
United States Department of the Interior, exclusive jurisdiction 
over the park; and
	WHEREAS, Exclusive jurisdiction, whereby the federal 
government possesses all of the authority of the state, was ceded by 
the State of Texas at the request of then-Secretary of the Interior 
Harold Ickes; and
	WHEREAS, The NPS also has jurisdiction over a 196-mile 
section of the Rio Grande designated by congress as part of the 
National Wild and Scenic Rivers System and administered by Big Bend 
National Park; and
	WHEREAS, The General Authorities Act of 1976 required the NPS 
to seek to acquire concurrent legislative jurisdiction for all 
units of the National Park System to allow the United States and the 
states to exercise joint regulatory authority; and
	WHEREAS, Concurrent legislative jurisdiction provides for 
more efficient conduct of state and federal law enforcement 
functions, improving visitor safety and resource protection at 
national parks; now, therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the 78th Legislature of the State of Texas 
hereby respectfully request the Congress of the United States to  
direct the National Park Service, United States Department of the 
Interior, to acquire concurrent legislative jurisdiction for Big 
Bend National Park and the Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River; and, be 
it further
	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official 
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to 
the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the 
senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the 
Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this 
resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a 
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.