Briefly In The News

Rim of the Valley study passes House

The House of Representatives Tuesday sent Rep. Adam Schiff’s Rim of the Valley Corridor Study legislation to the president to be signed into law, culminating a seven-year effort to get the bill through both houses.

The measure directs the secretary of the interior to study the feasibility of expanding the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to include the mountains and canyons in Southern California that are part of the Rim of the Valley Corridor, as designated by the state.

The Rim of the Valley consists of parts of the Santa Monica Mountains, Santa Susanna Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains, Verdugo Mountains, San Rafael Hills and adjacent connector areas to the Los Padres and San Bernardino national forests.

Schiff’s measure was included in the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008, which authorizes the secretary of the interior to conduct special resources studies of the Rim of the Valley and other lands and structures to determine the appropriate means for preservation and use.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein sponsored the companion legislation in the Senate this year. In the past, a similar version of this bill was approved by the House Resources Committee and passed by the full Senate, but this is the first time the bill has passed both chambers of Congress, according to Schiff’s office.