Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2009

Floor Speech

SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2009 -- (Senate - May 21, 2009)

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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I wanted to make a brief statement today on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's consideration of S. 692, a bill to ensure that a valuable collection of historical papers pertaining to President Franklin Roosevelt, known as the Grace Tully Archive, can be transferred to the Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park. NY.

The Grace Tully Archive is considered the most important collection of documents and memorabilia related to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt currently in private hands. The collection was directly given to and/or gathered by FDR's personal secretary for decades, covering both his private and public career as Governor of New York and President. The donation of the collection to the Roosevelt Presidential Library has been supported by the National Archives--NARA--and described as a matter of ``overwhelming public interest.''

The acting Archivist of the United States, Adrienne Thomas, wrote to Chairman Lieberman and Ranking Member Collins about this bill earlier this month, and I will ask that a copy of that letter be printed into the Record at the conclusion of my remarks.

After Grace Tully died in 1981, her collection was sold into private hands, and it has since changed hands several times. The current private owner obtained the collection in 2001 from a well-known New York rare book dealer in a widely publicized sale.

Although no previous claims had been made after other sales, the Archives stepped forward in 2004 to make a claim of ownership to certain specific documents contained in the larger Tully collection. They claimed that certain documents were ``Presidential papers'' and should have originally been given to the Archives, not Grace Tully yet the laws governing such documents and the establishment of Presidential libraries was not passed until after the death of President Roosevelt. So there are some legal ambiguities. But for several years, this dispute over the ownership of a small portion of the collection has prevented the donation of the entire collection.

Both sides wish to avoid litigation, since the collection is being donated to the FDR Library anyway indeed, the collection is already at the Roosevelt Library in sealed boxes waiting for the matter to be resolved. Both sides prefer that the matter be solved via Federal legislation that will clarify the ownership issue and ensure that the Archives and the American people receive this important historical collection.

Since the papers are already at the FDR library, my bill seeks only to clarify the ownership issue in order to facilitate the completion of the donation of a collection of immense value to historians. The current owner of the collection will have to abide by current tax rules governing such donations, including obtaining appropriate appraisals. All my bill seeks to accomplish is to allow the donation to move forward without the time and expense of litigation.

Last year, the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee also reported out this bill, but it was stalled by year-end disputes over unrelated unanimous consent requests. Since there is no objection to this bill, I am hopeful that the Senate can take it up and pass it unanimously very soon, so the gift of the papers can be completed this year.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have the letter to which I referred printed in the Record.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:

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