Weir Farm National Historical Park Redesignation Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HIMES. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend, Mr. Gallego, for yielding.

I rise in strong support of H.R. 5852.

Weir Farm is a magnificent jewel that resides in the middle of my district.

I should say at the outset, my district is actually smaller than a great number of the national park assets in this country, and so much of the agriculture that used to characterize southwestern Connecticut, of course, has given way to urban environments and to suburban environments. As a consequence, this 70 acres of land is truly a jewel inside Connecticut's Fourth District and inside Fairfield County, Connecticut.

The Weir Farm National Historic Site stretches across just 70 acres of land, but in those 70 acres, there are any number of historical buildings, a vast collection of American art, orchards and landscapes, trails, gardens, miles of stone walls, and Weir Pond, as well as over 250 historic painting sites.

Sometimes people don't remember--though I appreciate my colleagues today reminding everyone--that southwestern Connecticut has a long tradition of the production of American art, including Childe Hassam, who resided in my own town of Cos Cob, Connecticut.

But this particular national historical site, soon to become a national historical park, offers an opportunity, in particular, to the children who live in Stamford, Connecticut; Norwalk, Connecticut; and Bridgeport, Connecticut, cities that actually do have some meaningful poverty and in which children don't have a lot of opportunities to come face-to-face with their history, face-to-face with art, and face-to- face with our agricultural heritage, to actually see and touch these things.

It is a really wonderful location in the middle of Fairfield County, Connecticut, and this redesignation will capture the full breadth and the full comprehensive set of offerings that the Weir Farm National Historical Park will continue to offer the people of Connecticut and, quite frankly, the people of the United States.

The park's designation today fails to represent everything that the farm offers, including the remarkable youth programs that I referred to earlier, where organizations like Groundwork Bridgeport have partnered with Weir Farm to provide young people with opportunities that they might not otherwise have.

Before I close, Madam Speaker, I would like to thank Chairwoman Haaland, Chairman Grijalva of the subcommittee, Ranking Member Bishop, and Representative Young for working on this piece of legislation.

I thank the Friends of Weir Farm, including Elizabeth Castagna and Judy Wander, who have pushed this very hard, and the hardworking men and women at Weir Farm, including Linda Cook, the superintendent.

Finally, I thank my colleague, Senator Murphy, who will be seeing that this bill moves expeditiously through the United States Senate.

I also thank, again, my friend, Mr. Gallego.

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