Clinton Signs Bill to Enhance U.S. Parks

President Clinton signed a popular parks bill into law, praising it as the type of cooperative legislation he hopes will continue to spring from the new Congress. The Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Management Act of 1996 expands and makes boundary adjustments in scores of parks, authorizes dozens of land swaps and creates new heritage areas, historic trails and scenic rivers in 41 states. It ensures preservation of the Presidio, a former Army base in San Francisco, by switching management to a nonprofit trust. It also creates the first protected tall-grass prairie in Kansas and establishes a historic trail commemorating the 1965 voting rights march in Selma, Ala.