Bill To Conserve Colorado's Camp Amache Passes U.S. Senate After Days Of Opposition

(CBS4) - After days of fielding resistance, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, representing Colorado, announced his Senate bill to add Camp Amache to the National Park System passed. The bill is co-sponsored by Sen. John Hickenlooper.

The Amache site, located in Grenada, was one of 10 illegal internment camps created during World War II. About 7,500 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes in the 1940s, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Two-thirds of them were U.S. citizens.

Last week, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, of Utah, held out support for the Amache National Historic Site Act. He faced backlash for being the only Senator to do so.

Lee opposes adding new federal lands without adequate funding and has previously objected to expanding federal land ownership.

"We're a step closer to sending this bill to @POTUS & giving Amache and survivors the recognition they deserve," Bennet tweeted on Monday night.

Bennet's office says he and Lee negotiated the bill on Monday night.

"Lee asked for unanimous consent to pass Bennet's bill with an amendment that would have required the NPS to give up the same amount of land it gains through acquiring Amache. Bennet objected, and proposed his own amendment to allow the land to be transferred to NPS only as a donation. Since Lee did not object to Bennet's amendment, Bennet requested a final hotline of the bill with his amendment, and it passed by unanimous consent. Now, the bill as amended will return to the House for a final vote."

Colorado Republican Rep. Ken Buck and Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse co-sponsored the bill last year which passed in the House of Representatives.

"My father, David Takada, along with my grandparents, Kakuji and Fumi Takada, and my uncle, Andrew Takada, were all incarcerated in Amache," said Michael Takada, Amache descendant and chief executive officer of the Japanese American Service Committee. They lived for decades with a sense of shame and deep emotional pain and trauma. My grandparents have passed away but my dad and uncle, 97 and 95, respectively, are fortunately alive and in relatively good health. But we have a narrow window to help heal these wounds and provide a sense of closure for them and the few remaining Amache survivors. With each day, we are losing survivors and descendants. Thanks to bipartisan leadership in the U.S. House and Senate, the Amache bill is very close to the legislative finish line."

The 80th anniversary of this camp's establishment is on Saturday, February 19.