[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2627 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2627

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

                              June 7, 2007

  Mr. Payne (for himself, Mr. Garrett of New Jersey, Mr. Pallone, Mr. 
     Sires, Mr. Rothman, Mr. Andrews, and Mr. Smith of New Jersey) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                           Natural 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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