National Children's Museum Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the National Children's Museum Act. I give great thanks to Eleanor Holmes Norton, Rodney Davis, Peter DeFazio, and others who worked so hard on this legislation.

Children's museums are extraordinary gifts for the life of the mind. We give our kids imaginations, dreams, possibilities, and whole new universes. Children's museums change the trajectories of their lives, and this is the legacy of the National Children's Museum in the Nation's Capital.

For decades, the museum was much beloved in the city. We often took our kids to the old convent in northeast D.C., but after moving in 2004 in order to grow, it has been fighting to get back to its roots ever since.

We are lucky to have it located now in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, again in the heart of D.C., but still it faces barriers to reach its past success.

Even though this august body made it a congressionally designated museum in 2003, it is the only such congressionally designated museum expected to pay rent in a Federal building. With this bill, the nonprofit museum will be able to thrive and remain financially viable and accessible to our Nation's children and work with the GSA in a way that makes sense.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my friends not just to vote for this bill, but after we have crushed the pandemic to bring their children and grandchildren to be thrilled and inspired by our National Children's Museum.

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