[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 186 (Tuesday, December 6, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H8172-H8173]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        AUTHORIZING AMERICAN LEGION GUIDANCE TO INDIVIDUAL POSTS

  Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (S. 1639) to amend title 36, United States Code, to authorize the 
American Legion under its Federal charter to provide guidance and 
leadership to the individual departments and posts of the American 
Legion, and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                                S. 1639

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

     SECTION 1. ADDITIONAL POWER OF AMERICAN LEGION UNDER FEDERAL 
                   CHARTER.

       Section 21704 of title 36, United States Code, is amended--
       (1) by redesignating paragraph (5) through (8) as 
     paragraphs (6) through (9), respectively; and
       (2) by inserting after paragraph (4) the following new 
     paragraph (5):
       ``(5) provide guidance and leadership to organizations and 
     local chapters established under paragraph (4), but may not 
     control or otherwise influence the specific activities and 
     conduct of such organizations and local chapters;''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Gohmert) and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) each 
will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.


                             General Leave

  Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous materials on S. 1639, currently under 
consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  The American Legion received its Federal charter in 1919 as a 
patriotic veterans organization. Today, the Legion is America's largest 
Veterans Service Organization with 2.5 million members. Membership is 
available to persons who have served in the United States Armed Forces 
during wartime, including the current war on terrorism, and were 
honorably discharged or are continuing their service.

                              {time}  1650

  The Legion's goals are to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution, 
promote worldwide peace and goodwill, and preserve the memories of the 
two world wars and the other conflicts fought to uphold democracy. The 
Legion also aims to cement the ties and comradeship born of service and 
to commit the efforts of its members to service to the United States.
  The American Legion has over 14,000 local posts. The national 
organization is not designed to have control over all the independent 
posts. As the Supreme Court of Minnesota has found, local ``posts and 
State chapters are separately incorporated . . . and the posts all have 
their own constitutions and bylaws.'' The court found that there was a 
very limited relationship between the posts and national headquarters.
  The national organization's ``Officer's Guide and Manual of 
Ceremonies'' states ``the post is a separate and distinct unit which 
can and often does function independently.''
  The American Legion has asked Congress to amend its Federal charter 
to specify that the national organization may provide guidance and 
leadership to the individual departments and posts but that it may not 
control or otherwise influence the specific activities and conduct of 
the departments and posts.
  The director of the Legion's National Legislative Commission 
explained the request by stating the following:
  ``The Legion wants to allow members to renew their memberships and 
pay their dues to the national organization through the use of a credit 
card over the Internet . . . Currently, these dues payments flow to the 
national organization from our posts through our departments. We are 
concerned that plaintiffs' lawyers would argue this would indicate that 
the national organization has control over those departments and posts 
. . . Appearance of control may . . . support a claim of liability 
against the national organization when a legal dispute against a post 
arises.''
  S. 1639 amends the Legion's Federal charter as requested. Our 
colleague, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Altmire), introduced 
the House version of the bill, H.R. 2369, which the Judiciary Committee 
approved by voice vote.
  I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for his work on this 
legislation and am pleased to see that his bill has a remarkable 432 
cosponsors. It's almost unheard of.
  So there are things that this Congress needs to be doing, and there 
are many things that are very important that this Congress does; but 
this is something that only the Congress can do. So if we hear from 
other speakers who want to talk about a jobs bill, I would encourage 
them to go talk to the Senate about the 15 to 20 jobs bills that they 
are down there sitting on.
  I look forward to the day when the President says that this is a do-
nothing Congress that he's no longer half right in making that 
statement. The House is certainly not a do-nothing House. The Senate is 
sitting on many bills. This is a bill for which the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania saw a need, so he stepped up and filled that need, and I 
appreciate his efforts in doing this.

[[Page H8173]]

  The American Legion has performed a great service in bringing 
together veterans. I've spent a great deal of time with American Legion 
posts, and I'm grateful they exist. I think this is a good bill, and I 
would urge my colleagues to support it.
  With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume 
and am glad to be the Hoyt Wilhelm of the Judiciary Committee and to 
relieve the gentleman from Michigan, Chairman Conyers.
  S. 1639, the Senate version of H.R. 2369, is a bipartisan bill which 
makes a minor change to the Federal charter of the American Legion. The 
American Legion, as we all know, is the Nation's largest veterans 
service organization, which was chartered after World War I, by 
Congress in 1919.
  S. 1639, introduced by Senator Tester of Montana, a distinguished 
Member of the Senate, is the Senate companion of the bill introduced by 
the distinguished Representative and former defensive back from the 
Florida State Seminoles, Representative Altmire of Pennsylvania, who 
introduced H.R. 2369. He did a phenomenal job of getting 432 
cosponsors--433 if including himself in the sponsorship. He can't be a 
cosponsor because he is ``the'' sponsor, which might make this the 
easiest suspension vote we've ever taken.
  The change made by this bill simply reaffirms the organization's 
structure, which grants broad autonomy to the departments and posts 
throughout the country. While this is not a major change to the 
existing charter, it will help the American Legion carry out changes to 
the membership renewal process that were adopted by resolution at its 
national convention last year.
  Senator Tester and Representative Altmire are responding to a call 
from the American Legion. I am proud to join with them, as just about 
everybody else is in this House; and I support the bill.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GOHMERT. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. COHEN. I now yield 3 minutes and 7 seconds to the gentleman who 
represents the State of Pennsylvania (Mr. Altmire), an alumnus of 
Florida State University, who lost to the University of Tennessee in 
the national championship football game that I attended in Phoenix.
  Mr. ALTMIRE. I thank the gentleman, my friend from Tennessee, and I 
especially thank the gentleman from Texas for his kind words.
  There are other things that are more important than this--our friends 
in the American Legion would be the first to agree--that we are working 
on in this Congress; but as the gentleman from Texas pointed out, this 
is something only the Congress can do.
  This is an important issue for the American Legion. It modernizes the 
charter of the American Legion, and it clarifies the local autonomy of 
the local posts throughout the country. This needs to be done. It is 
important, and it is something that we in this Chamber have come 
together to do. It is long overdue.
  When I first introduced this bill in June, I started to talk with 
folks in this Chamber, and I found out that there really are things we 
can agree on. We've spent a lot of time over the course of the year--in 
fact, a lot of time today--pointing fingers at each other and casting 
blame and talking about all the things that we don't agree on. Yet, for 
our men and women in uniform, the people who are honorably and bravely 
serving this country, and our American veterans, we agree that they 
need this change and that we support them.
  As the gentleman from Texas pointed out, according to the 
Congressional Research Service, this bill that we introduced in the 
House, which is the companion bill to the Senate bill on which we will 
vote tomorrow, has received the most cosponsors of any bill ever 
introduced in the history of the Congress--432 cosponsors. It's more 
than any bill that has ever been introduced in history. It passed 
unanimously in the Senate after it was introduced in October, which 
shows there really are things we can work together on.
  Maybe this isn't the most important thing we could be doing, but it's 
something we need to do; and it's something we're going to do. 
Hopefully, it will send a message on both sides of this Capitol that we 
should come together and that we should put our differences aside. That 
doesn't mean we have to always agree, but at least let's work together, 
because this bill proves we can do it.
  So I am proud to stand here as the author of the House companion of 
this bill, and I am a proud supporter of the Senate bill that we will 
be voting on. I'm grateful that Senator Tester took the leadership role 
in the Senate to get this done.
  I thank the gentleman from Texas, and I thank the gentleman from 
Tennessee. I support this bill and urge my colleagues to vote for it.
  Mr. COHEN. I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, again, Mr. Altmire is owed a great debt 
of thanks. When my friend from Tennessee said this was a bipartisan 
bill, apparently it's the most bipartisan bill ever brought before the 
House. It's wonderful that a group like the American Legion could bring 
us together, and I appreciate Mr. Altmire's efforts in doing that.
  I would urge my colleagues to support its passage. With that, I yield 
back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) that the House suspend the rules and 
pass the bill, S. 1639.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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