[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1592 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1592

   To reauthorize the Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural 
                                Program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 12, 2007

 Mr. Brown (for himself, Mr. Voinovich, Mr. Obama, and Mr. Alexander) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
          Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To reauthorize the Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural 
                                Program.

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

SECTION 1. UNDERGROUND RAILROAD EDUCATIONAL AND CULTURAL PROGRAM.

    (a) Program Established.--The Secretary of Education, in 
consultation and cooperation with the Secretary of the Interior, is 
authorized to make grants to 1 or more nonprofit educational 
organizations that are established to research, display, interpret, and 
collect artifacts relating to the history of the Underground Railroad.
    (b) Grant Agreement.--Each nonprofit educational organization 
awarded a grant under this section shall enter into an agreement with 
the Secretary of Education. Each such agreement shall require the 
organization--
            (1) to establish a facility to house, display, and 
        interpret the artifacts related to the history of the 
        Underground Railroad, and to make the interpretive efforts 
        available to institutions of higher education that award a 
        baccalaureate or graduate degree;
            (2) to demonstrate substantial private support for the 
        facility through the implementation of a public-private 
        partnership between a State or local public entity and a 
        private entity for the support of the facility, which private 
        entity shall provide matching funds for the support of the 
        facility in an amount equal to 4 times the amount of the 
        contribution of the State or local public entity, except that 
        not more than 20 percent of the matching funds may be provided 
        by the Federal Government;
            (3) to create an endowment to fund any and all shortfalls 
        in the costs of the on-going operations of the facility;
            (4) to establish a network of satellite centers throughout 
        the United States to help disseminate information regarding the 
        Underground Railroad throughout the United States, if such 
        satellite centers raise 80 percent of the funds required to 
        establish the satellite centers from non-Federal public and 
        private sources;
            (5) to establish the capability to electronically link the 
        facility with other local and regional facilities that have 
        collections and programs that interpret the history of the 
        Underground Railroad; and
            (6) to submit, for each fiscal year for which the 
        organization receives funding under this section, a report to 
        the Secretary of Education that contains--
                    (A) a description of the programs and activities 
                supported by the funding;
                    (B) the audited financial statement of the 
                organization for the preceding fiscal year;
                    (C) a plan for the programs and activities to be 
                supported by the funding as the Secretary may require; 
                and
                    (D) an evaluation of the programs and activities 
                supported by the funding as the Secretary may require.
    (c) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section $6,000,000 for fiscal year 2008, 
$6,000,000 for fiscal year 2009, $6,000,000 for fiscal year 2010, 
$3,000,000 for fiscal year 2011, and $3,000,000 for fiscal year 2012.
                                 <all>