[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 23, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 23, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petitions and memorials were laid before the Senate and 
were referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-410. A joint resolution adopted by the Legislature of 
     the State of California; to the Committee on Banking, 
     Housing, and Urban Affairs.

                    ``Senate Joint Resolution No. 34

       ``Whereas, The United States of America mint located at 
     Fifth and Mission in San Francisco has been known as the Old 
     Mint and called over the years the Granite Lady; and
       ``Whereas, The Federal Greek Revival fortress was built by 
     famed architect A.B. Mullet with four-foot walls of Rocklin 
     granite, a facade of British Columbia blue-stone, iron 
     shutters, a pyramidal flight of steps, a portico of Doric 
     columns and was declared a National Landmark in 1961; and
       ``Whereas, The 119-year old building opened for business in 
     December 1874, withstood the earthquake and fire of 1906 and 
     the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and houses one of the best 
     museums of California history, and was itself a major part of 
     that history; and
       ``Whereas, The mint once housed significant amounts of the 
     nation's gold reserve; and
       ``Whereas, The Granite Lady once stamped California's gold 
     and Nevada's silver into the coins that most people then 
     preferred to greenbacks; and
       ``Whereas, In 1906, as flames ignited by the earthquake 
     destroyed everything around it, mint employees and soldiers 
     with a hose one-inch in diameter fought seven hours to save 
     the building--and the two hundred million dollars 
     ($200,000,000) in its vaults; and
       ``Whereas, When the smoke cleared, the Old Mint was nearly 
     alone among the survivors in its neighborhood after the 1906 
     San Francisco earthquake and fire; and
       ``Whereas, The Old Mint is the only example of Greek 
     Revival used in the architecture of federal buildings west of 
     the Rockies; and
       ``Whereas, The Old Mint drew 83,552 visitors and generated 
     a $400,000 income from the sales of commemorative coins and 
     souvenirs last year; and
       ``Whereas, This beloved and popular landmark was closed as 
     a result of a decision by bureaucrats within the Treasury 
     Department affording no public comment by elected officials 
     or other citizens; and
       ``Whereas, The United States Treasury Department reopened 
     the Old Mint temporarily after its sudden closure, for a 90-
     day period, in order to study options other than the 
     permanent closure of the Old Mint; now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate and Assembly of the State of 
     California, jointly, That the Legislature of the State of 
     California respectfully memorializes the President and the 
     Congress of the United States to direct the Treasury 
     Department to make the reopening of the museum and former 
     U.S. Mint in San Francisco, known as the Granite Lady or Old 
     Mint, permanent at the end of the 90-day review period; and 
     be it further
       Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies 
     of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the 
     United States, to the Speaker of the United States House of 
     Representatives, and to each Senator and Representative from 
     California in the Congress of the United States.''
                                  ____

       POM-411. A resolution adopted by the Council of the Town of 
     Wethersfield, Connecticut relative to commercial whale 
     killing; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
     Transportation.
       POM-412. A resolution adopted by the Council of the City of 
     New Bedford, Massachusetts relative to the fishing industry; 
     to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
       POM-413. A resolution adopted by the Legislature of the 
     State of South Dakota; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 
     and Transportation.

                  ``Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 2

       ``Whereas, Congress passed a federal law in 1975, amended 
     in 1988, requiring all federal agencies to use the metric 
     system in their procurements, grants, and other business-
     related activities, except to the extent that such use is 
     impractical or is likely to cause significant inefficiencies 
     or loss of markets to United States firms; and
       ``Whereas, the federal mandate stated that all federal 
     agencies are to proceed with metric conversion, and
       ``Whereas, up to this point it appears that the Federal 
     Highway Administration (FHWA) is one of only a few federal 
     agencies, if not the only federal agency, aggressively moving 
     forward with metric conversion; and
       ``Whereas, the Interstate Commerce Commission, in a 
     decision issued on June 2, 1992, dropped all plans to 
     encourage the industries it regulates to switch from the 
     decimal to the metric system of measurement; and
       ``Whereas, the FHWA solicited comments on metric conversion 
     through the Federal Register and published a review of those 
     comments on June 11, 1992; and
       ``Whereas, the notice stated that forty-seven percent of 
     the respondents strongly opposed metric conversion and 
     another thirty-five percent expressed some reservation to the 
     conversion while only eighteen percent were strongly 
     supportive of converting to the metric system; and
       ``Whereas, the conversion to the metric standard will 
     require state and local transportation agencies to absorb the 
     costs of conversion within their own budgets at a time when 
     federal funding has been cut and infrastructure needs and 
     costs continue to increase; and
       ``Whereas, the costs will range from changing highway speed 
     and distance signs to rewriting highway and transportation 
     design procedures and rewriting vehicle license procedures 
     and manuals to retraining workers and contractors throughout 
     the public and private transportation sector; and
       ``Whereas, the conversion costs will divert millions of 
     construction and maintenance dollars from the nation's 
     infrastructure and inhibit rather than enhance productivity; 
     and
       ``Whereas, the conversion cost in South Dakota alone is 
     estimated to be over 6.3 million dollars for state and local 
     government transportation agencies; and
       ``Whereas, there exists the lack of a strong public 
     education program to prepare the public for this change as 
     well as a lack of federal leadership and direction of a 
     conversion program; and
       ``Whereas, the United States Department of Commerce was 
     mandated at the federal level to direct and coordinate 
     implementation of the metric system and has not acted in that 
     role which has resulted in each federal agency developing 
     their own plan and time schedule for conversion without 
     coordination between agencies: Now, therefore, be it
       ``Resolved, by the Senate of the Sixty-ninth Legislature of 
     the state of South Dakota, the House of Representatives 
     concurring therein, that in the best interests of the state 
     of South Dakota, the United States Department of 
     Transportation should cancel or delay the Federal Highway 
     Administration's plans to convert their activities and 
     business operations to the metric system of weights and 
     measures by September 30, 1996; and be it further
       ``Resolved, that copies of this resolution be sent by the 
     secretary of the senate to each member of the South Dakota 
     congressional delegation; and be it further
       ``Resolved, that copies of this concurrent resolution be 
     sent by the secretary of the senate to the secretary of the 
     United States Department of Transportation, the administrator 
     of the Federal Highway Administration, the presiding officers 
     of each house of the Legislature of each of the other states 
     in the union, the clerk of the United States House of 
     Representatives, and the secretary of the United States 
     Senate.''

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