Hastert pushes proposal on Reagan home

WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Dennis Hastert is muscling through Congress a bill to make fellow Republican Ronald Reagan's boyhood home in Dixon, Ill., a national historic site.

The measure is poised for a House vote even though there has been no feasibility study and no one knows what it will cost to buy the site. Hastert has so far brushed aside concerns from the Bush administration and even fellow GOP congressmen that it needs more review.

"The opportunity exists right now to help preserve the legacy of Ronald Reagan and help future generations learn of his history," said Hastert's spokesman Pete Jeffries. "We want to make sure we seize the moment."

The move comes as the Interior Department has pointed to deteriorating conditions in existing parks, including a $4.9 billion maintenance backlog, and sought a general moratorium on additions to its park system.

The Yorkville Republican won the latest round in the maneuvering when the House Resources Committee earlier this month rejected an amendment to require a feasibility study.

The department had signaled support for Hastert's bill last spring after it had been amended to require the study.

"A new area study of this site would start the process of determining where and how it might be appropriate to have former President Reagan represented in the system," Interior official Joseph Doddridge wrote.

Lived there 3 years

Reagan's family, who moved often throughout his childhood in search of better work for his father, lived in the home for only three years, starting in 1920 when the future president was a fifth-grader. In Illinois, the Reagans also lived in other Dixon homes and in Tampico, Galesburg and Chicago.

Under Hastert's plan, Interior would acquire the site from the private Ronald Reagan Boyhood Foundation and the foundation would keep running it. Hastert says the proposal would ensure that Reagan's boyhood home never lacks the money to remain open to future generations.

"Ronald Reagan will go down in history as one of our greatest presidents, and it all began in my congressional district," he said in announcing the plan last February.

So far, Hastert has lined up more than 150 House co-sponsors and has backing from all of Illinois' House members, and even Sen. Peter Fitzgerald, the Republican who often has questioned such projects as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield.

"I don't think a study would accomplish anything," Fitzgerald said. "Everybody knows who Ronald Reagan was."

Hard to fix value

But how much it would take for the federal government to acquire the Dixon site from the Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home Foundation remains a big question -- and a possible deal-breaker even if Hastert's bill becomes law.

"It's hard to put a fair market value on history," said Al Hutchings, associate Midwest regional director for professional services for the National Park Service.

The Congressional Budget Office, without visiting the site, has estimated the cost of acquisition at $400,000, according to Jeffries.

"I told Congressman Hastert $5 million would be reasonable but we would take ... about $3 million," foundation chairman Norman Wymbs said in recounting a meeting with Hastert.