H.R. 5472

Jimmy Carter National Historical Park Redesignation Act

STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BEFORE THE HOUSE NATURAL RESOURCES SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL PARKS, FORESTS, AND PUBLIC LANDS, CONCERNING H.R. 5472, A BILL TO REDESIGNATE THE JIMMY CARTER NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE AS THE “JIMMY CARTER NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK”.

July 13, 2020
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Chair Haaland, Ranking Member Young, and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to provide the Department of the Interior’s views on H.R. 5472, a bill to redesignate the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site as the “Jimmy Carter National Historical Park”.

The Department supports H.R. 5472, as we believe that the name “Jimmy Carter National Historical Park” is an appropriate designation for this unit of the National Park System. 

Legislation authorizing the establishment of the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site and Preservation District was enacted in 1987 to preserve the key sites and structures associated with President Jimmy Carter during his life, provide for the interpretation of the life and presidency of Jimmy Carter, and present the history of a small rural southern town. The historic site consists of President Carter’s boyhood home in the community of Archery; Plains High School, now used for a visitor center and headquarters for the historic site; the Plains depot, which was used as a  headquarters for Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign; and the Carter compound, where President and Mrs. Carter have resided since 1981. 

The National Park Service encourages Congress to designate units of the National Park System in accordance with a standard pattern of nomenclature. National historical parks are typically areas of greater physical extent and complexity than national historic sites.  Often they contain multiple discontiguous sites.  The Jimmy Carter National Historic Site, with resources at several sites in and around the town of Plains, has the characteristics that make the designation of “national historical park” a more appropriate title than “national historic site.”

Chair Haaland, this concludes our statement.

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