{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://visclosky.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/house-approves-visclosky-s-indiana-dunes-national-park-act", "House Approves Viscloskys Indiana Dunes National Park Act", "2017-11-01", "2017", "2017-11", "Democrat", "House", "IN", "Peter Visclosky", "V000108", "visclosky.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, DC \u2013 Today, the U.S. House of Representatives approved Congressman Visclosky\u2019s legislation to designate the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore as a National Park.\nThe House approved the legislation, H.R. 1488, the Indiana Dunes National Park Act, by unanimous consent.\u00a0 The measure is now awaiting consideration by the U.S. Senate.\nDuring House consideration, Congressman Pete Visclosky stated, \u201cThe American taxpayers over a number of generations have invested in the preservation of the Indiana Dunes.\u00a0 It is incumbent that we do everything possible to encourage citizens and travelers from around the world to visit the park to learn, recreate, and simply enjoy the sublime environment of the Northwest Indiana lakeshore.\u00a0 H.R. 1488 helps to achieve this goal.\u201d\nBelow are Congressman Visclosky\u2019s full remarks, as prepared for delivery.\nI would like to thank Chairman Bishop and Ranking Member Grijalva of the Committee on Natural Resources for their work on this legislation, as well as Chairman McClintock and Ranking Member Hanabusa of the Subcommittee on Federal Lands. \nMr. Speaker, the legislation we are considering today would retitle the \u201cIndiana Dunes National Lakeshore\u201d as the \u201cIndiana Dunes National Park\u201d.\u00a0 While this is a small change, it would have an enormous benefit of rightly placing the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore where it belongs as the nation\u2019s 60th National Park and the first National Park in the State of Indiana.\u00a0 Located along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, the Indiana Dunes are a natural wonder and home to a vast array of rare plants and animals.\u00a0 According to the National Park Service, the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is the seventh most biologically diverse National Park Service unit.\nThis legislation completes an effort that began over 100 years ago when Stephen Mather, the first Director of the National Park Service, first proposed establishing the southern shore of Lake Michigan as \u201cSand Dunes National Park\u201d.\u00a0 I believe Mr. Mather said it best when he stated in his 1917 report to Congress, \u201cThe sand dunes are admittedly wonderful\u2026No national park or other Federal reservation offers this phenomenon for the pleasure and edification of the people, and no national park is as accessible.\u00a0 Furthermore, the dunes offer the visitor extraordinary scenery, a large variety of plant life, magnificent beaches, and splendid opportunities to camp in the wild country close to nature.\u201d\nUnfortunately, Mr. Mather\u2019s effort to establish Sand Dunes National Park was abandoned with the onset of the First World War.\u00a0 Then, in 1966, thanks to the efforts of concerned citizens, the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was established on the Lake Michigan shoreline. \u00a0Since that time, the park has been expanded by Congress on four different occasions.\u00a0 These expansions nearly doubled its original size so that the Lakeshore currently encompasses roughly 15,000 acres of wetlands and marshes, beaches, oak savannahs, and sand dunes.\u00a0 It is clear that the title of \u201cIndiana Dunes National Park\u201d is fitting for such a unique and beautiful natural resource.\nThe American taxpayers over a number of generations have invested in the preservation of the Indiana Dunes.\u00a0 It is incumbent that we do everything possible to encourage citizens and travelers from around the world to visit the park to learn, recreate, and simply enjoy the sublime environment of the Northwest Indiana lakeshore.\u00a0 H.R. 1488 helps to achieve this goal.\u00a0 \u00a0\nMr. Speaker, I am proud that the Indiana Dunes National Park Act has the full, bipartisan support of the entire Indiana delegation, and I thank my Indiana Senate colleagues, Senator Joe Donnelly and Senator Todd Young, for introducing the companion measure in the Senate.\u00a0 I urge my colleagues to support passage and I yield back the balance of my time. \n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://visclosky.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/house-approves-visclosky-s-indiana-dunes-national-park-act"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8399721700698137, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", 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