[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 99 (Monday, July 8, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1217]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




DEPARTMENTS OF VETERANS AFFAIRS AND HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND 
             INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1997

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                               speech of

                        HON. CHARLES E. SCHUMER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 26, 1996

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3666) making 
     appropriations for the Departments of Veterans Affairs and 
     Housing and Urban Development, and for sundry independent 
     agencies, boards, commissions, corporations, and offices for 
     the fiscal year ending September 30, 1997, and for other 
     purposes:

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment by 
Mr. Brown to strike funding for the American Museum of Natural History.
  There is so much to like about this project, it is hard to know where 
to begin.
  The funds will be used to renovate New York's Hayden Planetarium. 
Money for the project is coming from a wide range of sources including 
$33 million from New York City and $27 million from private donations. 
The Federal Government is only expected to contribute 10 percent of the 
funding or $13 million.
  When the project is completed, America will once again have the 
finest planetarium in the world. Think about your children and the 3 
million people who visit the planetarium each year as I read to you a 
description of the finished product from the New York Times.

       [The planetarium] centerpiece will be an enormous sphere 
     that will evoke, symbolically speaking, an atom, a planet, a 
     star and a galaxy. It will house several facilities, among 
     them the most technologically advanced sky theater in the 
     world and exhibits exploring the nature of the universe. A 
     spiraling walkway will take visitors through time, from the 
     Big Bang that formed the cosmos to the present day. It will 
     also serve as an intellectual link, explaining how the earth 
     evolved and the whys of oceans, continents, earthquakes, 
     mountains and volcanoes.

  For those who support NASA, let us remember that the future of our 
space program depends upon exciting the imaginations of the next 
generation about the cosmos. America ought to have the best planetarium 
in the world. After all, we are the leaders in space flight and in the 
exploration of the Universe.
  We know that if these funds are cut they will end up in some other 
account--so the deficit reduction argument does not work. Let us do 
something in the NASA funding bill for our kids.
  Oppose the Brown amendment.

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