[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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