1.This Act may be cited as the
Honoring Female Congressional Pioneers
Act of 2009
.
2.Congress finds as follows:
(1)The 74 women
currently serving in the House of Representatives owe a debt of gratitude to
all of their foremothers who broke down barriers both in their election to, and
in the important legislative work they accomplished as Members of, the House of
Representatives.
(2)Four women in
particular stand out for their status as the first
women in
certain categories.
(3)In 1916, Jeannette
Rankin broke new ground by becoming the first woman elected to the House of
Representatives, representing the State of Montana, first from 1917 to 1919 and
later from 1941 to 1943.
(4)Jeannette Rankin’s
first election was all the more remarkable, considering that it came 3 years
before women’s suffrage was a legally guaranteed right throughout the United
States.
(5)Jeannette Rankin directly contributed to a
woman’s right to vote when she introduced a resolution in 1919 to support a
women’s suffrage amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
(6)Jeannette Rankin remained true to her
pacifistic ideals both by voting against the declarations of World War I and
World War II—and in fact was the only Representative to vote against the
declaration of World War II—and by working tirelessly to promote peace during
her years outside of Congress.
(7)In 1924, Mary Teresa Norton became the
first Democratic woman elected to the House of Representatives—and one of a
small number of women during that period who were elected in their own right
and not to replace their husbands—representing New Jersey’s Twelfth
Congressional District from 1925 to 1951.
(8)Mary Norton served as the chair of the
Committee on the District of Columbia from 1931 to 1937, effectively governing
the city which at that time had no municipal government of its own.
(9)In 1934, Mary Norton became the first woman
to chair a major political party in a State as head of the New Jersey State
Committee.
(10)Mary Norton was instrumental in the
drafting and passage in 1938 of a major piece of President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s New Deal: the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established a minimum
wage, a maximum workweek, overtime pay, and a prohibition on child
labor.
(11)In 1964, Patsy Takemoto Mink became the
first Asian-American woman elected to the House of Representatives,
representing Hawaii’s Second Congressional District from 1965 to 1977 and again
from 1991 until her death in 2002.
(12)Patsy Mink secured an assignment to the
Committee on Education and Labor, for which her previous expertise and
interests made her well-suited, and used her time on that Committee to
introduce the first child care bill, as well as bills to provide for bilingual
education, student loans, special education, and the Head Start program.
(13)Patsy Mink gained passage in 1965 of
legislation to support the construction of schools in the Trust Territory of
the Pacific Islands.
(14)Patsy Mink established the Democratic
Women’s Caucus in 1995 and served as its first chair.
(15)In 1968, Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm
made history by becoming the first African-American woman elected to the House
of Representatives, representing New York’s Twelfth Congressional District
until her retirement in 1983.
(16)Shirley Chisholm was a founding member of
the Congressional Black Caucus, a fierce advocate for women’s rights and
democracy, and a staunch opponent of the Vietnam War.
(17)Shirley Chisholm was an outspoken advocate
for equal rights, early childhood education, fair labor standards, and the
Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday effort.
(18)Shirley Chisholm further cemented her place
in history when she became the first African-American person to seek a major
political party’s nomination for President in 1972.
(19)There is a real need to honor these women
and others like them more often in our Nation’s artistic and cultural
venues.
3.In order to afford the
public a convenient means by which to contribute towards the acquisition (for
public display in the United States Capitol and other appropriate locations) of
works of art honoring Jeannette Rankin, Mary Teresa Norton, Patsy Mink, Shirley
Anita St. Hill Chisholm, and other female pioneers in Government service, the
United States Postal Service shall provide for the issuance and sale of a
semipostal in accordance with section 416 of title 39, United States Code,
subject to the following:
(1)Disposition of
amounts receivedAll amounts becoming available from the sale of
the semipostal shall be transferred by the Postal Service to the Capitol
Preservation Commission and the House Fine Arts Board (which is hereby
authorized to accept any such amounts) under such arrangements as the Postal
Service and those entities shall by mutual agreement establish in order to
carry out the purposes of this Act.
(2)No effect on
authority to issue other stampsNo semipostal issued pursuant to
this Act shall be taken into account for purposes of applying any numerical
limitation established under section 416(e)(1)(C) of such title 39.
4.For purposes of this Act—
(1)the term
semipostal has the meaning given such term by section 416(a)(1) of
title 39, United States Code;
(2)any determination
of the amounts becoming available
from the sale of the
semipostal shall be made in accordance with section 416(d) of such title
39;
(3)the term
Capitol Preservation Commission means the United States Capitol
Preservation Commission, established by section 801 of Public Law 100–696 (2
U.S.C. 2081); and
(4)the term
House Fine Arts Board means the House of Representatives Fine Arts
Board, established by section 1001 of Public Law 100–696 (2 U.S.C.
2121).