[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 124 (Friday, October 6, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Page S10092]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 145--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF CONGRESS ON 
  THE PROPRIETY AND NEED FOR EXPEDITIOUS CONSTRUCTION OF THE NATIONAL 
 WORLD WAR II MEMORIAL AT THE RAINBOW POOL ON THE NATIONAL MALL IN THE 
                            NATION'S CAPITAL

  Mr. WARNER (for himself, Mr. Inouye, Mr. Thurmond, and Mr. Stevens) 
submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was considered and 
agreed to:

                            S. Con. Res. 145

       Whereas World War II is the defining event of the twentieth 
     century for the United States and its wartime allies;
       Whereas in World War II, more than 16,000,000 American men 
     and women served in uniform in the Armed Forces, more than 
     400,000 of them gave their lives, and more than 670,000 of 
     them were wounded;
       Whereas many millions more on the home front in the United 
     States organized and sacrificed to give unwavering support to 
     those in uniform;
       Whereas fewer than 6,000,000 World War II veterans are 
     surviving at the end of the twentieth century, and the Nation 
     mourns the passing of more than 1,200 veterans each day;
       Whereas Congress, in Public Law 103-422 (108 Stat. 4356) 
     enacted in 1994, approved the location of a memorial to this 
     epic era in an area of the National Mall that includes the 
     Rainbow Pool;
       Whereas since 1995, the National World War II Memorial site 
     and design have been the subject of 19 public hearings that 
     have resulted in an endorsement from the State Historic 
     Preservation Officer of the District of Columbia, three 
     endorsements from the District of Columbia Historic 
     Preservation Review Board, the endorsement of many Members of 
     Congress, and, most significantly, four approvals from the 
     Commission of Fine Arts and four approvals from the National 
     Capital Planning Commission (including the approvals of those 
     Commissions for the final architectural design);
       Whereas on Veterans Day 1995, the President dedicated the 
     approved site at the Rainbow Pool on the National Mall as the 
     site for the National World War II Memorial; and
       Whereas fundraising for the National World War II Memorial 
     has been enormously successful, garnering enthusiastic 
     support from half a million individual Americans, hundreds of 
     corporations and foundations, dozens of civic, fraternal, and 
     professional organizations, state legislatures, students in 
     1,100 schools, and more than 450 veterans groups representing 
     11,000,000 veterans: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) it is appropriate for the United States to memorialize 
     in the Nation's Capital the triumph of democracy over tyranny 
     in World War II, the most important event of the twentieth 
     century;
       (2) the will of the American people to memorialize that 
     triumph and all who labored to achieve it, and the decisions 
     made on that memorialization by the appointed bodies charged 
     by law with protecting the public's interests in the design, 
     location, and construction of memorials on the National Mall 
     in the Nation's Capital, should be fulfilled by the 
     construction of the National World War II Memorial, as 
     designed, at the approved and dedicated Rainbow Pool site on 
     the National Mall; and
       (3) it is imperative that expeditious action be taken to 
     commence and complete the construction of the National World 
     War II Memorial so that the completed memorial will be 
     dedicated while Americans of the World War II generation are 
     alive to receive the national tribute embodied in that 
     memorial, which they earned with their sacrifice and 
     achievement during the largest and most devastating war the 
     world has known.

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