[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4158 Introduced in House (IH)]

103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4158

  To establish the Lower East Side Tenement Museum National Historic 
                                 Site.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 24, 1994

Ms. Velazquez introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To establish the Lower East Side Tenement Museum National Historic 
                                 Site.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Lower East Side Tenement Museum 
National Historic Site Act of 1994''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    As used in this Act:--
            (1) The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of the 
        Interior.
            (2) The term ``historic site'' means the Lower East Side 
        Tenement Museum designated as a national historic site by 
        section 4.
            (3) The term ``Museum'' means the Lower East Side Tenement 
        Museum at 97 Orchard Street, New York City, in the State of New 
        York, and related facilities owned or operated by the Museum.

SEC. 3. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

    (a) Findings.--The Congress finds that--
            (1) the Lower East Side Tenement Museum at 97 Orchard 
        Street is an outstanding survivor of the vast number of humble 
        buildings that housed immigrants to New York City during the 
        greatest wave of immigration in American history;
            (2) the Museum is well suited to represent a profound 
        social movement involving great numbers of unexceptional but 
        courageous people;
            (3) no single identifiable neighborhood in the United 
        States absorbed a comparable number of immigrants;
            (4) the Lower East Side Tenement Museum is dedicated to 
        interpreting immigrant life on the Lower East Side and its 
        importance to United States history, within a neighborhood long 
        associated with the immigrant experience in America; and
            (5) the National Park Service found the Lower East Side 
        Tenement Museum to be nationally significant, suitable, and 
        feasible for inclusion in the National Park System.
    (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are--
            (1) to assure the preservation, maintenance, and 
        interpretation of this site and to interpret in the site and in 
        the surrounding neighborhood, the themes of early tenement 
        life, the housing reform movement, and tenement architecture in 
        the United States;
            (2) to assure the continuation of the Museum at this site, 
        the preservation of which is necessary for the continued 
        interpretation of the nationally significant immigrant 
        phenomenon associated with the New York City's Lower East Side, 
        and its role in the history of immigration to the United 
        States; and
            (3) to enhance the interpretation of the Castle Clinton 
        National Historic Monument and Ellis Island National Historic 
        Monument through cooperation with the Museum.

SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF HISTORIC SITE.

    In order to further the purposes of this Act and the Act of August 
21, 1935 (16 U.S.C. 461-7), the Lower East Side Tenement Museum at 97 
Orchard Street, in the city of New York, State of New York, is hereby 
designated as a national historic site.

SEC. 5. ACQUISITION OR COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT.

    (a) In General.--In furtherance of the purposes of this Act and the 
Act of August 21, 1935 (16 U.S.C. 461-7), the Secretary may either 
acquire the historic site with donated or appropriated funds or enter 
into cooperative agreements with the Lower East Side Tenement Museum 
designed to effectuate the purposes of this Act.
    (b) Technical and Financial Assistance.--Such agreements may 
include provisions by which the Secretary will provide technical 
assistance to mark, restore, interpret, operate, and maintain the 
historic site and may also include provisions by which the Secretary 
will provide financial assistance to the Museum to acquire ownership of 
and to maintain the historic site, or to mark, interpret, and restore 
the historic site, including the making of preservation-related capital 
improvements and repairs.
    (c) Additional Provisions.--Such agreement may also contain 
provisions that--
            (1) the Secretary, acting through the National Park 
        Service, shall have the right of access at all reasonable times 
        to all public portions of the property covered by such 
        agreement for the purpose of conducting visitors through such 
        properties and interpreting them to the public; and
            (2) no changes or alterations shall be made in such 
        properties except by mutual agreement between the Secretary and 
        the other parties to such agreements.

SEC. 6. LAND ACQUISITION.

    The Secretary is authorized to acquire properties owned or occupied 
or required by the Museum or to assist the Museum in the acquisition of 
properties which it occupies or requires through the use of 
appropriated funds or by donation or purchase with donated funds.

SEC. 7. APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are hereby authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be 
necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act.

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