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H.R. 3607 - Yosemite Medical Clinic Legislation Passes House Natural Resources Committee

November 30, 2017

Washington, D.C. – H.R. 3607 by Congressman McClintock to address continued operation of the Yosemite Medical Clinic passed the House Natural Resources Committee on November 30th.

The legislation addresses all national park medical clinics, assuring that funds generated by clinics be retained by those clinics.

Congressman McClintock delivered remarks in support of the legislation at the Natural Resources committee hearing:

Mr. Chairman:

Thank you for scheduling H.R. 3607 for markup. This bill addresses a nagging problem at Yosemite National Park involving a medical clinic that has operated in the Valley since 1929. Like other medical clinics in our national parks, it serves the park and concessionaire employees, their families, and tens of thousands of daily park visitors.

The Yosemite Medical Clinic is a million-dollar-a-year operation, maintaining a full-time staff and sophisticated medical equipment to treat and stabilize any number of serious injuries and sudden illnesses that confront a population of a moderately sized town.

But here is the problem. Any other medical clinic would be able to use the fees it collects to finance its operations; to plan for amortizing equipment purchases and expansions, and to match its expenses to the revenues it generates.

Not so our park medical clinics. Under current law, the fees collected by the medical clinic must go directly to the national treasury, and the park must then rely on annual appropriations to replace those funds – with no certainty they will return and no ability to plan long-term improvements.

This bill changes that.

It would establish a separate trust fund in the Treasury -- still under the control of Congress -- but dedicated to be returned to the clinics that generate these funds in the first place.

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