[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 189 (Tuesday, December 11, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H15255-H15256]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           JOHN F. KENNEDY CENTER REAUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2007

  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 3986) to amend the John F. Kennedy Center Act to authorize 
appropriations for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 
and for other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 3986

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``John F. Kennedy Center 
     Reauthorization Act of 2007''.

     SEC. 2. TECHNICAL AMENDMENT.

       Section 2(a)(2)(J)(ii) of the John F. Kennedy Center Act 
     (20 U.S.C. 76h(a)(2)(J)(ii)) is amended by striking ``Public 
     Works and Transportation'' and inserting ``Transportation and 
     Infrastructure''.

     SEC. 3. PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM.

       The John F. Kennedy Center Act (20 U.S.C. 76h et seq.) is 
     amended by inserting after section 6 the following:

     ``SEC. 7. PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEM.

       ``(a) In General.--The Board is authorized to study, plan, 
     design, engineer, and construct a photovoltaic system for the 
     main roof of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing 
     Arts.
       ``(b) Report.--Not later than 60 days before beginning 
     construction of the photovoltaic system pursuant to 
     subsection (a), the Board shall submit a report to the 
     Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House 
     of Representatives and the Committee on Environment and 
     Public Works of the Senate on the feasibility and design of 
     the project.''.

     SEC. 4. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

       Section 13 of the John F. Kennedy Center Act (20 U.S.C. 
     76r) is amended--
       (1) by striking subsections (a) and (b) and inserting the 
     following:
       ``(a) Maintenance, Repair, and Security.--There are 
     authorized to be appropriated to the Board to carry out 
     section 4(a)(1)(H)--
       ``(1) $20,200,000 for fiscal year 2008;
       ``(2) $21,800,000 for fiscal year 2009; and
       ``(3) $22,500,000 for fiscal year 2010.
       ``(b) Capital Projects.--There are authorized to be 
     appropriated to the Board to carry out subparagraphs (F) and 
     (G) of section 4(a)(1)--
       ``(1) $23,150,000 for fiscal year 2008;
       ``(2) $16,000,000 for fiscal year 2009; and
       ``(3) $17,000,000 for fiscal year 2010.''; and
       (2) by redesignating subsection (d) as subsection (e), and 
     by adding after subsection (c) the following:
       ``(d) Photovoltaic System.--There are authorized to be 
     appropriated to the Board such sums as may be necessary to 
     carry out section 7, with such sums to remain available until 
     expended.''.

     SEC. 5. EXISTING AUTHORITIES.

       Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit or affect 
     the authority or responsibility of the National Capital 
     Planning Commission or the Commission of Fine Arts.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) and the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Petri) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota.


                             General Leave

  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material therein.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Minnesota?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a national 
memorial to a fallen President, one of the most loved, respected, and 
admired Presidents of our history. The John F. Kennedy Center for the 
Performing Arts was initially proposed as a national cultural center 
during the tenure of President Dwight Eisenhower. It moved its way 
through the legislative process and took firm root and forward progress 
during the brief tenure of President John F. Kennedy and then sprang 
forward under President Lyndon Johnson. It has become an extraordinary 
cultural center for the Nation.
  Our committee has had the good fortune to hold jurisdiction over the 
physical facility of the Kennedy Center and of its operations, and we 
have managed that responsibility very thoroughly and very effectively 
through the tenure of many previous Chairs of this committee. In 
particular, in the current context I thank the gentlewoman from the 
District of Columbia (Ms. Norton), who is the Chair of the Subcommittee 
on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, 
for her leadership on this bill as well as our ranking member of the 
full committee, Mr. Mica, and the subcommittee ranking member, Mr. 
Graves, and Mr. Petri who is here today managing the bill on the 
Republican side, for crafting what has historically been in our 
committee bipartisan legislation dealing with the operations of the 
Kennedy Center.
  Since opening its doors September 8, 1971, the Kennedy Center has 
continued each year to gain national and international renown for its 
performance arts, programming, and for the education programs at the 
Kennedy Center that reach out across the Nation so that high schools, 
colleges, and universities can participate by satellite and live 
performances or recorded performances at the Kennedy Center.
  The center has crossed the threshold in the last couple of years by 
performing over 3,000 performances, hosting millions of theater-goers, 
visitors, tourists. But of all of those accomplishments, none matches 
the international outreach of the Kennedy Center under President 
Michael Kaiser. In the aftermath of the Iraq war, Michael Kaiser 
personally traveled to Iraq to meet with the musicians of the Iraqi 
symphony who were, in many cases, without instruments or had somehow 
sheltered them from the post-invasion trauma, and secured instruments 
for them and secured funding to travel the Iraqi symphony to the 
Kennedy Center to perform jointly with the National Symphony Orchestra, 
an extraordinary gesture of international brotherhood and sisterhood of 
the arts.
  President Kaiser has traveled to Africa, to the Far East, Japan, 
China to mobilize interest in the arts, joint initiatives with the 
Kennedy Center, and has actually established programs of arts 
management in countries well beyond our shores to help particularly 
Third World countries where arts have fallen well below the threshold 
of national concerns where people are more concerned about starvation 
and disease than they are about the arts. President Michael Kaiser has 
raised the threshold, raised the vision of arts managers in other 
countries, and created a great future for the arts wherever he has 
traveled.
  Over the past decade, a great deal of work at the Kennedy Center has 
focused on life safety and accessibility projects. Many of those are 
completed. The Kennedy Center's capital building plan, which was 
updated earlier this year, emphasizes facility infrastructure. Over the 
next several years, the Kennedy Center will focus on replacing 
mechanical and electrical systems that consist of original equipment 
that is well beyond its useful life or should be replaced by more 
efficient equipment, and we provide authority for that work to continue 
to prevent failure or breakdown of essential equipment.
  The bill before us today authorizes appropriations for maintenance 
and capital projects of the Kennedy Center for fiscal years 2008 to 
2010. For maintenance, repair, and security, the bill authorizes $64.5 
million over 3 years. For capital projects, the bill authorizes $56.2 
million through 2010. Those are numbers derived from the Kennedy

[[Page H15256]]

Center's 2006-2007 Comprehensive Building Plan, which has worked its 
way through the administrative review process within the administration 
and the Office of Management and Budget.
  The bill also authorizes the center to study, plan, design and build 
a photovoltaic system on the four-acre main roof of the Kennedy Center. 
That is 140,000 square feet of roof space. A preliminary estimate shows 
that a photovoltaic system would cost $6 million to build, but would 
save $10 million over the next 25 years. It is part of the plan of this 
committee to redirect the energy consumption of our portfolio of 
Federal civilian office space, for which this committee has 
responsibility of some 367 million square feet of Federal civilian 
office space that we can cut down on the electricity bill of $5.8 
billion a year at those facilities. We could save the taxpayers a lot 
of money, and we could save the environment an awful lot of damage by 
converting to photovoltaic use. A good place to start is with the arts 
and with the Kennedy Center and with the Department of Energy building 
in the recently House-passed version of the energy conservation bill.
  So this initiative that we require would in itself be a tribute to 
President Kennedy's longstanding well-known views of environmental 
protection.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. PETRI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I rise in support of this measure, and I urge my colleagues to do the 
same.
  H.R. 3986, the John F. Kennedy Center Reauthorization Act of 2007, is 
a bipartisan bill authorizing appropriations for the John F. Kennedy 
Center for the Performing Arts for 3 years. Additionally, the bill 
authorizes a photovoltaic system for the main roof of the Kennedy 
Center.
  The Kennedy Center serves an important role in our Nation. Not only 
is it one of the busiest theaters in the world, hosting millions of 
patrons each year to its seven stages, but it is first and foremost a 
presidential memorial for President John F. Kennedy.
  Since its founding, the Kennedy Center has become one of the world's 
premier entertainment venue, featuring award-winning performances.
  The funds we are authorizing today will go towards the upkeep and 
maintenance of the facility. These repairs are in line with the 
comprehensive building plan maintained by the Kennedy Center and 
created at the direction of Congress in 1994.
  By supporting the regular maintenance and upkeep of the Kennedy 
Center, we can ensure that the center will continue to be a world-class 
venue well into the future.
  I would also like to thank Chairman Oberstar and Chairwoman Norton, 
for working with us on this legislation. It was important for the 
Kennedy Center to report back to Congress before construction begins on 
the photovoltaic project to ensure adequate congressional oversight of 
the project.
  I believe it is important the photovoltaic project be cost effective 
and appropriate for a presidential memorial. Thank you again for 
working with us.
  I support this measure and urge my colleagues to do the same.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. OBERSTAR. Mr. Speaker, it is my earnest hope that the other body 
will act promptly on this legislation. We would certainly like to get 
the bill enacted before the close of this session of Congress. We 
intend to pass this bill and send it over to the other body in the 
hopes that they will simply accept or make such technical or minimal 
changes as we can accept without the need for a conference with the 
other body, and send this bill on to the President to get the 
authorization in place in time for the upcoming budget cycle.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 3986, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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