CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS.

SECTION 1. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS. The Congress finds that— (1) Laurance Spelman Rockefeller followed in the tradition of his father, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., by enlarging and enhancing the National Park System of the United States, including the donation of five thousand acres on the Island of St. John for the Virgin Islands National Park; (2) Laurance Spelman Rockefeller was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower as chairman of the Outdoor Recreation Resources Review Commission, and his work led to the establishment of the Bureau of Outdoor Recreation, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Wilderness Act, the National System of Scenic Rivers, and other landmark conservation programs; (3) Laurance Spelman Rockefeller was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson as Chairman of the 1965 White House Conference on Natural Beauty, and his recommendations brought the concept of natural beauty to urban areas, led to the Highway Beautification Act, and increased State and local awareness of environmental issues; (4) Laurance Spelman Rockefeller collaborated with Lady Bird Johnson in her quest to beautify the United States and the Capital, and assisted her in the creation of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove in Washington, District of Columbia; (5) Laurance Spelman Rockefeller served President Richard M. Nixon and President Gerald R. Ford as chairman of Presidential advisory committees on environmental quality, and served on other Federal advisory groups, including the Public Land Law Review Commission and the National Park Foundation; (6) Laurance Spelman Rockefeller served as a member of the New York State Council of Parks for thirty years and, as its chairman, expanded and modernized the State park system through an innovative bond program which was replicated across the Nation; (7) Laurance Spelman Rockefeller served as a principal advisor on environmental matters to his brother, Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York, and helped to develop the Adirondack Park Agency, the Hudson River Valley Commission, the first State water pollution bond issue, and the first comprehensive State environmental and conservation agency; 104 STAT. 198 (8) Laurance Spelman Rockefeller served as a member and President of the Palisades Interstate Park Commission for forty years and made major donations to expand the Palisades Interstate Park System; (9) Laurance Spelman Rockefeller contributed to the environmental quality of New York City through his efforts on behalf of the New York Zoological Society and the Bronx Zoo, the New York Aquarium, Central Park, and other parks in the city; (10) Laurance Spelman Rockefeller, as a part-time resident of Woodstock, Vermont, has contributed to the environmental aesthetics of that community through promotion of the placement of power lines underground, the initiation of watershed planning, and the preservation and display of historic properties and objects; (11) Laurance Spelman Rockefeller has been the long-time guiding force in three significant private conservation organizations: Jackson Hole Preserve, Incorporated, which has preserved park land in the Grand Tetons of Wyoming, the Virgin Islands, and the Hudson Valley; the American Conservation Association, which has provided support and encouragement for innovative government and private conservation programs; and Historic Hudson Valley, Incorporated, which has preserved outstanding historic properties of the Hudson Valley for public use; (12) Laurance Spelman Rockefeller has played an important role in creating or leading other private conservation organizations, including Resources for the Future, the National Recreation and Park Association, and the Conservation Foundation; and (13) Laurance Spelman Rockefeller, in addition to his extraordinary contributions to the environment in the United States, is one of the leaders in the fight against cancer with more than forty years of dedicated work and benefactions to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.