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Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, next year, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of our Nation's founding, and I am glad that in anticipation of this great celebration, President Trump has issued an Executive order outlining preparations that our country will make to celebrate this anniversary.

As part of this effort, President Trump has also issued a separate Executive order specifically directing the elimination of woke and anti-American displays at the Smithsonian museum.

Now, this may come as a shock to many people, but every single Institution in this city seems to be infected with political ideology and bureaucratic agendas, and the Smithsonian is no exception.

The 21 museums that make up the Smithsonian Institution have been a treasure for a long time; but, unfortunately, in recent years, they have strayed from their true mission. These museums should be a place where up-and-coming generations of Americans can go to learn about American heroes and who built our great Nation.

They should be places where they learn about our Founding Fathers, the founding documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the pioneers who explored and settled this great land, and those who endured great hardships in order to make a better life for their children.

There are so many great stories of Americans, people who have done so much to make our country what it is today. These stories are what our young people need to hear because how else will you inspire the upcoming generation to stand on the shoulders of their forebearers and continue to make life better for more and more people who call this great country home?

How will we teach those who will one day lead this Nation--whether that is in government or in business, in medicine or any other field-- that these pursuits are honorable and they have a purpose, if they have not yet learned these lessons about the heroic men and women who have gone on before them?

Unfortunately, as I indicated a moment ago, the Smithsonian has strayed from its original reason for being. The Smithsonian Institution was founded in 1846 for the expressed purpose of increasing the diffusion of knowledge among men. It was founded as a gift by James Smithson, who devised his entire estate to the U.S. Government.

Congress, as we now know, accepted this gift and provided for its governance and its financing. The Smithsonian Institution operates as a trust, which means that it is an executive Agency of the U.S. Government and is chaired by a 17-member Board of Regents.

But since its original founding in 1846, something has gone terribly wrong with the direction of the Smithsonian. A writer and mother of six recently described her experience taking her children to museums in our Nation's Capital on a warm summer day.

At the family's first stop, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, her 4-year-old was excited to see dinosaur skeletons. But she was disappointed to learn that much of the dinosaur exhibit was dedicated to climate change.

One exhibit specifically read:

Since the last ice age, Earth's climate has warmed. But now that warming is getting faster because of us.

Well, you don't have to be a climate denier--and I am not--to recognize that something is profoundly wrong with this message.

Is it really the message a 4-year-old needs to learn, that climate change is something that she or he is personally guilty of contributing to?

Unfortunately, to the mother's dismay, she said the museum's website highlighted additional polarizing displays. A historian from the museum told the mother:

The second-floor popular culture exhibit--probably the most popular in the museum--is a Marxist struggle session. Every single exhibit is interpreted through a race-class-gender lens.

Is that really what we want to be teaching the upcoming generation of Americans at our most esteemed museums?

No. It seems like the Smithsonian has lost its way.

Instead of celebrating the contributions of remarkable Americans or educating our children about the animals that once roamed the planet, Smithsonian Institution museums are telling children they should feel guilty for contributing to climate change and introducing them to topics, which are clearly not age-appropriate.

But sometimes, it is not what the Smithsonian includes in their exhibits which is troubling; it is what they choose to exclude.

Who can forget the snub to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture?

I recall when the museum opened, the Smithsonian had zero plans to reference Justice Clarence Thomas, the second of two Black Justices to ever serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Instead, what they chose to highlight is the testimony of Anita Hill in what came to be known as a ``high-tech lynching'' that followed.

Well, this was, obviously, a biased presentation and one that was clearly on its head. And I introduced a resolution at the time asking them to recognize the historical importance of Justice Thomas and his service to the Court.

After a groundswell of opposition in the months that followed, the museum finally did include him in an exhibit. But, the previous exhibit featuring Anita Hill and not the Justice is a stain on the Smithsonian that I will never forget.

I remember talking to the head of the Smithsonian at the time. Basically, he said: Thank you, Senator, for your call, but Congress doesn't have anything to say about what we do at the Smithsonian.

Well, he is wrong, and these are not messages that the Smithsonian should be sending.

America's history is a tale of triumph over incredible odds in the pursuit of freedom, and it is one that all of our children and our grandchildren deserve to learn in an unbiased and apolitical way.

Now, some have argued that the Smithsonian is subject to oversight by Congress and the executive branch. Others have said: No, it is purely a private, independent entity.

But a close examination of the Institution's history will show that it has always been a government institution, an institution of the U.S. Government.

After James Smithson willed his estate for an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge, the Senate--the U.S. Senate, what we are today--passed a bill to establish and organize the Smithsonian Institution that was signed into law by President Polk in 1846.

Now, that doesn't sound like a private, independent entity to me if Congress has to pass a law.

And then Congress delegated the governance of the Smithsonian Institution to a Board of Regents. This Board includes a Chief Justice of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, as well as three sitting Senators and Representatives.

Moreover, the Smithsonian receives more than half of its funds--its operating funds--from the American taxpayer, from the Federal Government. It is pretty hard to make the case that an Institution that gets the majority of its funding from Congress and is governed by a board of government officials is anything but a government entity. In fact, you can't make that argument because the evidence is all to the contrary.

Furthermore, the Institutions are structured much like other government Agencies headed by a Secretary who oversees several Under Secretaries. I don't know of any private corporations whose CEOs are referred to as ``secretary.''

Moreover, the Smithsonian Institution itself has argued time and time again in court that they are, in fact, a government entity. In a case called Raven v. Sajet, a Federal court agreed, ruling that the ``Smithsonian is a government institution through and through.'' That means that the Smithsonian is clearly subject to oversight by the U.S. Government, including the executive branch and the Congress.

Our country was founded on the ideals of individual liberty, justice, and equality before the law. These are values that our institutions should teach, particularly to the next generation--not ``woke'' ideology and political agendas. So as we prepare for the celebration of America's 250th birthday, I would encourage--strongly encourage--the Smithsonian Institution to reconsider its purpose and to return to the principles and ideals laid out in the founding documents they so proudly display, to the benefit of all Americans.

I would close with this prediction: We know from recent events--some as recent as early this morning when we took the step that many of us have talked about for many years, and that is eliminating taxpayer support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting--there are more than enough media entities that are capable of communicating the news and other information of interest to our constituents, the 350 million people in the country. We don't need to subsidize those with taxpayer money. Indeed, if you look at the First Amendment of the Constitution, it guarantees a free press. Can the press truly be free if it is financed and subsidized by the government? I don't see how that is possible.

So starting early this morning with the vote on the rescissions package and the defunding, at least in terms of Federal funds--private funds and donations are certainly fine--but we finally have begun the step of bringing accountability to the Nation's Capital. No longer will the bureaucracy simply take the taxpayers' money and do what they want regardless of oversight by the Congress and the executive branch and the oversight, in essence, of the American people. Those days are over.

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