Statements On Introduced Bills And Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS -- (Senate - July 20, 2007)

Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the National Women's History Museum Act of 2007, a bill that would clear the way to locate a long-overdue historical and educational resource in our Nation's capital city.

In each of the last two Congresses, the Senate has approved earlier versions of this bill by unanimous consent. I appreciate that past support, and I appreciate the cosponsorship today from 18 of my colleagues, Senators Akaka, Bennett, Boxer, Cantwell, Clinton, Coleman, Durbin, Dole, Klobuchar, Landrieu, Lincoln, McCaskill, Mikulski, Murkowski, Murray, Snowe, Stabenow, and Voinovich.

Women constitute the majority of our population. They make invaluable contributions to our country, not only in traditional venues like the home, schools, churches, and volunteer organizations, but in Government, corporations, medicine, law, literature, sports, entertainment, the arts, and the military services. The need for a museum recognizing the contributions of American women is of long standing.

A presidential commission on commemorating women in American history concluded that, ``Efforts to implement an appropriate celebration of women's history in the next millennium should include the designation of a focal point for women's history in our Nation's capital.''

That report was issued in 1999. Nearly a decade later, although Congress has commendably made provisions for the National Museum for African American History and Culture, the National Law Enforcement Museum, and the National Building Museum, there is still no national institution in the capital region dedicated to women's role in our country's history.

The proposed legislation calls for no new Federal program and no new claims on the budget. It would simply direct the General Services Administration to negotiate and enter into an occupancy agreement with the National Women's History Museum, Inc. to establish a museum in the long-vacant Pavilion Annex of the Old Post Office building in Washington, DC.

The National Women's History Museum is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational institution based in the District of Columbia. Its mission is to research and present the historic contributions that women have made to all aspects of human endeavor, and to present the contributions that women have made to the Nation in their various roles in family, the economy, and society.

The Pavilion Annex to the Old Post Office was a commercial failure and remains a continuing drain on Federal maintenance budgets. Putting the building to use as a museum would provide lease payments and establish a new historical and educational destination site on Pennsylvania Avenue that would bring new visitor traffic and new economic activity to the neighborhood.

These are sound reasons for supporting this bill. The best reason, however, is the obligation to demonstrate the gratitude and respect we owe to the many generations of American women who have helped build, sustain, and advance our society. They deserve a building to present their stories, as well as the stories of pioneering women like abolitionist Harriet Tubman, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, astronaut Sally Ride, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

That women's roll of honor would also include a distinguished predecessor in my Senate seat, the late Senator Margaret Chase Smith, the first woman nominated for President of the United States by a major political party, and the first woman elected to both Houses of Congress. Senator Smith began representing Maine in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1940, won election to the Senate in 1948, and enjoyed bipartisan respect over her long career for her independence, integrity, wisdom, and decency. She remains my role model and, through the example of her public service, an exemplar of the virtues that would be honored in the National Women's History Museum.

I thank my colleagues for their past support of this effort, and urge them to renew that support for this bill.

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