[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 135 (Thursday, September 26, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H11358-H11359]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             PROVIDING FOR RELOCATION OF PORTRAIT MONUMENT

  Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee 
on House Oversight be discharged from further consideration of the 
concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 216) providing for relocation of 
the portrait monument, and ask for its immediate consideration in the 
House.
  The Clerk read the title of the concurrent resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Maryland?
  Mrs. MALONEY. Reserving the right to object, Mr. Speaker, I do not 
intend to object, but I would like to express my limited reservations 
about this resolution.

                              {time}  1930

  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Maryland [Mrs. Morella] 
to explain the resolution.
  Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, I will briefly explain what this 
resolution does.
  First and foremost it is a compromise that has been agreed to by the 
House, by the Senate and women's groups throughout the Nation who have 
been involved in this project for years.
  What House Concurrent Resolution 216 will do, it will bring the 
suffragette statue, also known as the portrait monument, up to the 
rotunda where it will be rededicated as the important symbol that it 
is, for women's rights, and for what it says about the importance of 
the right to vote in a democracy.
  According to the bill, the statue will remain in place for 1 year in 
the rotunda and then there will be a commission that will be 
established of 11 interested parties, including Senators and 
Representatives. The majority leader of the Senate will appoint 3 
members, the minority leader of the Senate will appoint 2 members of 
the commission, the Speaker of the House of Representatives will 
appoint 1 member, the majority leader of the House 2 Members, the 
minority leader of the House 2 Members; and the Architect of the 
Capitol will serve as the 11th member.
  What that commission will do is it will make recommendations about 
the final resting place for the statue. It is really needed because 
there are so many differing opinions, and so this commission will be 
appointed in order to conclude some of those concerns.
  If I might also comment, Mr. Speaker, on why this is important, all I 
can say is, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia 
Mott. Get ready. You're finally going where you've always belonged--
upstairs.
  Tonight, thousands of American women are watching--from Mrs. 
Stanton's great-great-granddaughter in Connecticut to Arlys Endres, a 
9-year-old schoolgirl in Arizona--the thousands of women who have 
written this House with one strong message: Move the statue to the 
rotunda.
  I salute the leadership of Senators Warner and Stevens, who initiated 
this effort in the Senate last year; the energy and hard work of Karen 
Staser of the National Woman's Suffrage Statue Campaign and Sherry 
Little of the Senate Rules Committee, who spearheaded a national 
movement to relocate the portrait monument; and the thousands of women 
and women's organizations who cared so much about their history.
  House Concurrent Resolution 216 will make sure that future 
generations will honor, remember, and celebrate these earlier women of 
courage, strength, and perseverance, women whose indomitable spirit 
still inspires us in our quest for a more equitable society.
  More than 75 years ago, Alice Paul and the National Woman's Party 
commissioned sculptor Adelaide Johnson to create a statue to 
commemorate the passage of the 19th amendment and to celebrate those 
remarkable women whose lives were devoted to gaining for women the 
right to vote and the opportunity to participate fully in American 
life.
  Today, we tend to forget the enormity of that struggle for the right 
to vote and those brave and outspoken women who demanded the right to 
vote in a society that still frowned on the education of girls.
  It was not an easy victory. For more than 70 years, women gave 
speeches, marched in parades, wrote and signed petitions, picketed, 
went to jail, and even died for the right to vote.
  The statue that honors these women will have again a place of honor 
in the Capitol rotunda, a place of honor it has long deserved.
  When schoolchildren from around the Nation come to visit Washington, 
a city of monuments and symbols, they will see in the rotunda a statue 
that not only honors the women who marched for the vote but a statue 
that also underscores the importance of the right to vote in our 
American democracy, a right that today so many of us take for granted.
  (Mrs. MALONEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend her 
remarks.)
  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to object, 
first I would like to thank the gentlewoman from Maryland for her 
leadership and persistence on this issue, and I would like to thank the 
Speaker of the House for supporting it and moving it to the floor.
  Mr. Speaker, as a New Yorker, I am pleased that New York State's 
distinguished leaders, Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth 
Stanton are finally going to be moved, after 76 years in the basement 
of the Capitol, into the living room of the Capitol rotunda.
  Mr. Speaker, almost every great struggle throughout American history 
is represented in the Capitol's rotunda. Exactly 76 years ago, American 
women gained the right to vote. But our leaders were not allowed into 
the rotunda to stand beside the great revolutionary male leaders, 
Lincoln, Washington, and King.
  The Republican leadership initially opposed the move because of 
expense to the taxpayer. Now that we have $75,000 of private funding 
from the National Museum of Women's History to move the statue once, 
this compromise solution could possibly move it twice.
  Statues are about history. Moving the statue of these three great 
heroines of the women's suffragette movement

[[Page H11359]]

is a small but significant step in recognizing the rich history of the 
American women's movement. I support it. I urge a ``yes'' vote.
  I would just like to end by saying that fortunately this Congress 
will soon be history, too, and we will be able to go home to our 
families, but I am thrilled that finally, after 76 years, the great 
women leaders will be moved to a place of honor in the rotunda along 
with the other great leaders in the history of our country.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to close by thanking the gentlewoman from 
Maryland [Mrs. Morella] again for her persistence and leadership on 
this issue.
  Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hansen). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentlewoman from Maryland?
  There was no objection.
  The Clerk read the concurrent resolution, as follows:

                            H. Con. Res. 216

       Whereas in 1995, women of America celebrated the 75th 
     anniversary of their right to participate in our government 
     through suffrage;
       Whereas Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. 
     Anthony were pioneers in the movement for women's suffrage 
     and the pursuit of equal rights; and
       Whereas the relocation of the Portrait Monument to a place 
     of prominence and esteem would serve to honor and revere the 
     contribution of thousands of women: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
     concurring), That the Architect of the Capitol shall--
       (1) restore the Portrait Monument and place it in the 
     Rotunda of the Capitol for one year at which time it shall be 
     moved to a permanent site along with an appropriate 
     educational display, as determined by the commission created 
     in section 3, and an alternative statue recommended by the 
     commission shall be placed in the Rotunda;
       (2) make all necessary arrangements for a rededication 
     ceremony of the Portrait Monument in the Rotunda in 
     conjunction with the Woman Suffrage Statue Campaign; and
       (3) use no Federal funds to pay any expense of restoring or 
     moving the statue.
       Sec. 2. The Rotunda of the Capitol is authorized to be used 
     at a time mutually agreed upon by the majority leader of the 
     Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives for a 
     ceremony to commemorate and celebrate the statue's return to 
     the Rotunda.
       Sec 3. A commission of 11 interested parties, including 
     Senators and Representatives, will be appointed. The majority 
     leader of the Senate will appoint three members and the 
     minority leader of the Senate will appoint two members to the 
     commission. The Speaker of the House of Representatives will 
     appoint one member, the majority leader of the House of 
     Representatives will appoint two members, the minority leader 
     of the House of Representatives will appoint two members, and 
     the Architect of the Capitol will serve as the eleventh 
     member of the commission. Immediately following the 
     relocation of the Portrait Monument, the commission shall--
       (1) select a permanent site for the Portrait Monument;
       (2) plan and develop an educational display to be located 
     near the statue at its permanent site, describing some of the 
     most dramatic events of the suffragettes' lives;
       (3) select an alternative statue for permanent placement in 
     the Rotunda of the Capitol to commemorate the struggle of 
     women in America for equal rights;
       (4) provide its recommendation to the Senate and the House 
     of Representatives no later than one year after the 
     relocation of the Portrait Monument; and
       (5) use no Federal funds to pay any expense of the 
     educational display and/or relocation of the Portrait 
     Monument.

  The concurrent resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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