[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1096 Introduced in House (IH)]
109th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1096
To establish the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in the State of
New Jersey as the successor to the Edison National Historic Site.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 3, 2005
Mr. Garrett of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. Pallone, Mr. Payne, Mr.
Ferguson, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, and Mr. Andrews) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To establish the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in the State of
New Jersey as the successor to the Edison 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 ``Act Commemorating the LITE, or
Lifetime Innovations of Thomas Edison.''
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
(1) The Edison National Historic Site, located in West
Orange, New Jersey, is a vital part of America's national
system of parks which preserves Thomas Alva Edison's research
and development laboratories, library, papers, and artifacts,
as well as his home.
(2) The Site is a national historic treasure and contains
the world's largest collection of materials related to Thomas
Edison, encompassing an estimated 5,000,000 pages of documents,
over 400,000 artifacts, approximately 35,000 sound recordings,
and 10,000 books from Edison's personal library.
(3) Thomas Edison is one of America's greatest inventors,
whose inexhaustible energy and genius produced 1,093 patents in
his lifetime, more than any other American, including patents
for the incandescent light bulb, the motion picture camera, and
the phonograph.
(4) In 1928, Thomas Edison was awarded the Congressional
Gold Medal for the ``development and application of inventions
that have revolutionized civilization in the last century.''
(5) In 1998, Congress again honored Thomas Edison by
directing the Secretary of the Treasury to mint a commemorative
coin celebrating the 125th anniversary of Edison's invention of
the light bulb, celebrated in 2004.
(6) The Edison National Historic Site is one of America's
most endangered historic places. The National Park Service, in
its General Management Plan and Development Concept Plan,
identified the need for numerous actions to preserve, protect,
restore, and enhance the Site and determined that sufficient
government funds are not likely to be appropriated to complete
these necessary actions in the foreseeable future.
(7) On November 6, 1997, the National Park Service signed
an agreement with the Thomas Alva Edison Preservation
Foundation (now the Edison Preservation Foundation),
establishing a public-private partnership to jointly raise
money to fund identified improvements at the Edison National
Historic Site so as to leave the Site unimpaired for the
enjoyment of future generations.
(b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are--
(1) to recognize and pay tribute to Thomas Alva Edison and
his innovations; and
(2) to preserve, protect, restore, and enhance the Edison
National Historic Site to ensure public use and enjoyment of
the Site as an educational, scientific, and cultural center.
SEC. 3. THOMAS EDISON NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK.
(a) Establishment.--There is established the Thomas Edison National
Historical Park as a unit of the National Park System (hereafter the
``Historical Park'').
(b) Boundaries.--The Historical Park shall be comprised of--
(1) all property owned by the United States in the Edison
National Historic Site as well as all property authorized to be
acquired by the Secretary of the Interior for inclusion in the
Edison National Historic Site before the date of the enactment
of this Act, as generally depicted on the map entitled the
``Edison National Historic Site'', numbered 20003B, and dated
April 1977; and
(2) all property authorized to be acquired for inclusion in
the Historical Park by this Act or other law enacted after the
date of the enactment of this Act.
(c) Map.--The map of the Historical Park shall be on file and
available for public inspection in the appropriate offices of the
National Park Service.
SEC. 4. ADMINISTRATION.
(a) In General.--The Secretary shall administer the Historical Park
in accordance with this Act and with the provisions of law generally
applicable to units of the National Park System, including the Acts
entitled ``An Act to establish a National Park Service, and for other
purposes,'' approved August 25, 1916 (39 Stat. 535; 16 U.S.C. 1 et
seq.) and ``An Act to provide for the preservation of historic American
sites, buildings, objects, and antiquities of national significance,
and for other purposes,'' approved August 21, 1935 (16 U.S.C. 461 et
seq.).
(b) Acquisition of Property.--
(1) Real property.--The Secretary may acquire land or
interests in land within the boundaries of the Historical Park,
from willing sellers only, by donation, purchase with donated
or appropriated funds, or exchange.
(2) Personal property.--The Secretary may acquire personal
property associated with, and appropriate for, interpretation
of the Historical Park.
(c) Cooperative Agreements.--The Secretary may consult and enter
into cooperative agreements with interested entities and individuals to
provide for the preservation, development, interpretation, and use of
the Historical Park.
(d) Repeal of Superseded Law.--Public Law 87-628 (76 Stat. 428),
regarding the establishment and administration of the Edison National
Historic Site, is repealed.
(e) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, document,
paper, or other record of the United States to the ``Edison National
Historic Site'' shall be deemed to be a reference to the ``Thomas
Edison National Historical Park''.
SEC. 5. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.
There is authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be
necessary to carry out this Act.
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