[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 153 (Tuesday, October 28, 2003)]
[House]
[Pages H9841-H9843]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXTENDING AUTHORITY FOR CONSTRUCTION OF MEMORIAL TO MARTIN LUTHER KING,
JR.
Mr. SAXTON. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the
Senate bill (S. 470) to extend the authority for the construction of a
memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Clerk read as follows:
S. 470
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION. 1. MEMORIAL TO MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Section 508(b) of the Omnibus Parks and Public Lands
Management Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-333, as amended is
amended to read as follows:
``(b) Compliance With Standards for Commemorative Works.--
[[Page H9842]]
``(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), the
establishment of the memorial shall be in accordance with
chapter 89 of title 40, United States Code.
``(2) Notwithstanding section 8903(e) of title 40, United
States Code, the authority provided by this section
terminates on November 12, 2006.''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Capito). Pursuant to the rule, the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton) and the gentlewoman from the
Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen) each will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton).
General Leave
Mr. SAXTON. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from New Jersey?
There was no objection.
Mr. SAXTON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
S. 470, introduced by my friend, Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland,
would extend the authority for the construction of the memorial to Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., in the District of Columbia. S. 470 would
simply extend to November 2006 the authorization given to the site's
sponsor, Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, in the Omnibus Parks and Public
Land Management Act of 1996 to raise the funds to build the memorial.
The bill is strongly supported by the administration and both the
majority and minority of the Committee on Resources. I urge my
colleagues to support S. 470.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
(Mrs. CHRISTENSEN asked and was given permission to revise and extend
her remarks.)
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, S. 470 is the Senate companion
measure to a House bill, H.R. 1209, that was passed by this body on
September 23, 2003. It is a simple piece of legislation that extends
for 3 years the authority for construction of a memorial to Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., here in the District of Columbia.
In 1996, Public Law 104-333 authorized the Alpha Phi Alpha
Fraternity, Inc., through the Martin Luther King Memorial Project
Foundation, to establish a memorial here in our Nation's capital to
America's foremost civil rights leader. Since that time, the sponsors
have worked diligently to secure memorial site and design approvals. In
addition, there has been a fund-raising campaign under way to secure
the necessary funds to build and maintain the memorial. However, not
all of the necessary funds have been secured and ground cannot be
broken until the funds are in place. That is the reason for the need
for the extension.
Madam Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to applaud the Alpha
Phi Alpha fraternity for the work they have done so far and their
commitment to this project. S. 470 is a completely noncontroversial
measure. I strongly support its passage by the House today so that the
measure can be sent to the President for his signature and the work to
establish this national memorial to this great American, a real world
leader, can continue.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SAXTON. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman
from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).
Ms. NORTON. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from the Virgin
Islands for yielding me this time and the chairman who is managing the
bill on the other side, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton), for
their good and hard work on this bill and for bringing it to the floor
before the deadline.
I appreciate that this bill was authorized in 1996 and that the
Congress understood it to be an important matter, that Martin Luther
King, who has been honored all over the world, has never been
sufficiently honored until he is honored by the Congress of the United
States in the Nation's capital. Site selection and other processes on
the memorial, however, were not completed until the year 2000. So
although authorized in 1996, the Congress is aware that the District
has the most elaborate process for monuments in the country. You do not
hear me complaining. I am a strong supporter of those processes. It is
one Mall; it is priceless. We already are in danger of filling it up
and not paying enough attention to it. I am working on a conservancy
bill because it is deteriorating. We have to make sure that everything
that goes on that Mall which is, after all, our real crown jewel, goes
through each and every process and is exactly right.
And so it took some time to find the right space on the Mall. We do
not just put things anywhere on the Mall anymore. This is a plot of
land meant to last in perpetuity. It is already greatly endangered. But
if you do not know precisely where the memorial is going to go until
almost 4 years after Congress has authorized it, it is very difficult
to do all of the fundraising because it is when the site is chosen that
people recognize that the monument is going to happen and they come
forward more easily to, in fact, contribute. It eases the process
tremendously after that point.
I want to commend Alpha Phi Alpha for what they have done so far. It
is herculean to do what they have done. It is a $100 million memorial,
no Federal funds, one lone fraternity, the fraternity that Martin
Luther King himself belonged to. They have the entire burden of raising
the funds for this memorial. This bill will help them to continue the
process; yet it is only 3 more years.
I believe every Member of this body and of the other body appreciates
the singular place of Martin Luther King in our country's history. His
reconciling, nonviolent approach was critical. Otherwise, we need only
look around the world and we need only consider that we had legal
discrimination in this country for 100 years after the Civil War to
appreciate what this man did. All over the world in order to settle
such disputes there are conflagrations going on. As I speak, in our
country we have still not gotten over the Civil War. We are much
further along the way, however, after the nonviolent revolution that
began in the 1960s. The man most responsible for the character of that
revolution is Martin Luther King, Jr., himself. It loses the Congress
nothing and gives it much to simply extend the time for Alpha Phi Alpha
to gather the funds necessary for a memorial for this great American.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman
from Illinois (Mr. Davis).
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman
from the Virgin Islands for yielding me this time. As a member of Alpha
Phi Alpha fraternity, I also want to commend my brothers for the
tremendous work they have done on this project. I also want to thank
the Committee on Resources for bringing this bill to the floor.
Every year, millions of Americans and visitors from across the world
visit our Nation's capital. They visit the national Mall where symbols
of our Nation's history and ideals stand tall and strong. In classrooms
across the Nation as they study the history of the 20th century,
besides our involvement in wars, the civil rights movement is the most
influential stage in the development and evolution of our society. Yet
besides the bust of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the Rotunda of the
Capitol building, there are no tributes recognizing the significance of
the movement to our Nation's history. I am in support of S. 470 because
I believe that a memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., would be
fitting to not only remember this remarkable man but the civil rights
movement itself, over 200 years of struggle for equality and to remind
our citizens what great success can be achieved with nonviolent
resistance.
Dr. King, as many of us know, was the most visible and effective
advocate of nonviolence and direct action as methods of social change.
In 1956, Dr. King became the president of the newly formed Montgomery
Improvement Association, where he gained national attention for his and
the association's role in the Montgomery bus boycott.
[[Page H9843]]
He encouraged black college students to continue their sit-in protests
and freedom rides. In 1963, Dr. King led mass demonstrations in
Birmingham, Alabama, where the demonstrators were met with violent
opposition, getting the interest and attention of then-President John
F. Kennedy who responded, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed.
Dr. King became Time Magazine's Man of the Year in 1963 and the
recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. In 1967, he also initiated
a poor people's campaign designed to confront economic problems that
were not addressed under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Dr. King's life
of peace and change was suddenly ended on April 4, 1968, as he was
assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
Mr. Speaker, our Nation's capital makes history alive. Without having
a memorial to Dr. King and the civil rights movement, it sends the
message that this part of history is not still alive. As Dr. King once
told his children, ``I'm going to work and do everything that I can do
to see that you get a good education. I don't ever want you to forget
that there are millions of God's children who will not and cannot get a
good education, and I don't want you feeling that you are better than
they are. For you will never be what you ought to be until they are
what they ought to be.'' Our country will never be what it ought to be
until we value and adequately display the contributions of African
Americans who have made tremendous contributions to our history; and,
of course, a tribute to Dr. King on the Mall would go a long ways in
that direction.
Ms. WATSON. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of S. 470, to
extend the authority for the construction of a memorial to Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. on the National Mall. The House bill, H.R. 1821,
was passed on September 23, 2003 by a voice vote under unanimous
consent.
The authorization set by Congress in 1996 to raise funds for the
memorial will expire on November 12, 2003. Passage of the Senate bill
will allow the legislation to be sent directly to the President for
signing and extend the authorization through November 12, 2006.
The efforts of the King Memorial Foundation to raise $100 million for
the construction and maintenance of the project have been impressive,
but more time is needed to reach its fundraising goal. I believe that
it is our job as members of Congress to ensure that Dr. King will be
memorialized in a distinguished manner that acknowledges his legacy.
Congress therefore must authorize more time for funds to be raised to
build the King Memorial.
Our National Mall is representative of the profound history and
strength of our Nation. Dr. King is one of out Nation's most important
leaders, and this monument should carry the same weight and
significance as those erected in honor of other distinguished
Americans.
Congressional leaders also support the efforts to put Dr. King's
legacy at Washington's forefront. They along with several other of my
colleagues sit on a honorary bipartisan congressional committee for the
Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial.
Dr. King's teachings of non-violent civil disobedience to combat
segregation and racial inequality affected not only minorities, but
every religious, ethnic, and social group in our Nation. In 1963, Dr.
King led the March on Washington very near the site where we wish to
honor him today. His leadership was critical to the passage of the
landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Dr. King acted on his dream for America and was successful in making
the United States a better place. We must ensure that Dr. King's
valiant efforts will be remembered by future generations.
Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in keeping Dr. King's
dream alive by honoring him among our Nation's finest.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time,
and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SAXTON. Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I
yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the Senate bill, S. 470.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor
thereof) the rules were suspended and the Senate bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________