[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 86 (Monday, June 17, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H3660-H3661]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      VIETNAM VETERANS DONOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ACT OF 2013 AMENDMENT

  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and 
agree to the resolution (H. Res. 264) providing for the concurrence by 
the House in the Senate amendment to H.R. 588, with an amendment.
  The Clerk read the title of the resolution.
  The text of the resolution is as follows:

                              H. Res. 264

       Resolved, That upon the adoption of this resolution the 
     House shall be considered to have taken from the Speaker's 
     table the bill, H.R. 588, with the Senate amendment thereto, 
     and to have concurred in the Senate amendment with the 
     following amendment:
       In lieu of the matter proposed to be inserted by the 
     amendment of the Senate to the text of the bill, insert the 
     following:

     SEC. 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Vietnam Veterans Donor 
     Acknowledgment Act of 2013''.

     SEC. 2. DONOR CONTRIBUTION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AT THE VIETNAM 
                   VETERANS MEMORIAL VISITOR CENTER.

       Section 6(b) of Public Law 96-297 (16 U.S.C. 431 note) is 
     amended--
       (1) in paragraph (4) by striking the ``and'' after the 
     semicolon;
       (2) in paragraph (5)--
       (A) by striking ``2014'' and inserting ``2018''; and
       (B) by striking the period and inserting ``; and''; and
       (3) by inserting at the end the following new paragraph:
       ``(6) notwithstanding section 8905(b)(7) of title 40, 
     United States Code--
       ``(A) the Secretary of the Interior shall allow the Vietnam 
     Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc. to acknowledge donor 
     contributions to the visitor center by displaying, inside the 
     visitor center, an appropriate statement or credit 
     acknowledging the contribution;
       ``(B) donor contribution acknowledgments shall be displayed 
     in a form approved by the Secretary of the Interior and for a 
     period of time commensurate with the level of the 
     contribution and the life of the facility;
       ``(C) the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund shall bear all 
     expenses related to the display of donor acknowledgments;
       ``(D) prior to the display of donor acknowledgments, the 
     Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc. shall submit to the 
     Secretary for approval, its plan for displaying donor 
     acknowledgments;
       ``(E) such plan shall include the sample text and types of 
     the acknowledgments or credits to be displayed and the form 
     and location of all displays;
       ``(F) the Secretary shall approve the plan, if the 
     Secretary determines that the plan--
       ``(i) allows only short, discrete, and unobtrusive 
     acknowledgments or credits;
       ``(ii) does not permit any advertising slogans or company 
     logos; and
       ``(iii) conforms to applicable National Park Service 
     guidelines for indoor donor recognition; and
       ``(G) if the Secretary of the Interior determines that the 
     proposed plan submitted under this paragraph, does not meet 
     the requirements of this paragraph, the Secretary shall--
       ``(i) advise the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc. not 
     later than 30 days after receipt of the proposed plan of the 
     reasons that such plan does not meet the requirements; and
       ``(ii) allow the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc. to 
     submit a revised donor recognition plan.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Utah (Mr. Bishop) and the gentleman from the Northern Mariana Islands 
(Mr. Sablan) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Utah.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks 
and to include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Utah?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  There comes a point in time when we are always asking the Senate to 
do something, and when they finally get around to doing something, they 
decide to mess it up by making it questionable by trying to expand it. 
This is a similar case in which we gave them a simple and good bill. 
They have sent us back something that is questionable and expanded, and 
we are going to give it back to them so that they just do it right the 
second time around.
  With that, I would like to yield such time as he may consume to the 
sponsor of the original bill, the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young).
  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, over a month ago, the House passed the Vietnam Veterans 
Donor Acknowledgment Act by a resounding vote of 398-2. Unfortunately, 
a couple of weeks ago, the Senate substantially changed this bipartisan 
and noncontroversial piece of legislation. Instead of only allowing 
donor recognition at a soon-to-be-built Vietnam Veterans Education 
Center, the Senate changed the bill to allow donor recognition, across 
the entire Mall, on all future commemorative works. While I am not 
fundamentally opposed to this idea, neither the House nor the Senate 
has done any hearings to consider the implications of this issue. In 
fact, neither the House nor the Senate has done a markup on this issue 
to allow Members to add their input.
  Mr. Speaker, put simply, this is just a poor legislative process, and 
the American people deserve better.
  Today, we are here to undo what the Senate has done and to, once 
again, send the Senate a bipartisan and noncontroversial bill. Today's 
resolution

[[Page H3661]]

merely strikes the Senate language that allows donor recognition across 
The Mall and reinserts my original language from H.R. 588. This 
language has been through the full committee process and is sound 
legislative text.
  However, not all of the Senate additions are bad. In this bill, we 
will keep one portion of the Senate's language, which extends the 
legislative authority to construct the Vietnam Veterans Education 
Center from 2014 until 2018.

                              {time}  1710

  It is unfortunate that we must provide this extension, though. Our 
Nation's Vietnam veterans have waited too long for this education 
center. It is a shame that a long line of political gamesmanship has 
delayed its construction.
  Mr. Speaker, after the Vietnam War, many of our Nation's bravest were 
welcomed home not with joyous cheers or words of thanks, but dirty 
looks and snide remarks.
  Let us end these political games. I call upon my colleagues in the 
House, but especially on my colleagues in the Senate, to quickly pass 
this resolution so this education center can finally be built. I think 
we can all agree that this legislation and this center are a long time 
coming.
  Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  This is a very important issue before us today. The Senate amended 
H.R. 588 to allow any new memorial in D.C. to acknowledge donors.
  The original bill passed by the House only allowed donor 
acknowledgement for the Vietnam Memorial Visitor Center. The Senate 
amendment also provided a 4-year extension of the legislative authority 
for the Vietnam Memorial Visitors Center.
  The resolution before us today would narrow the Senate language back 
to apply only to the Vietnam Memorial Visitor Center while continuing 
to provide the visitor center with a 4-year extension of their 
authorization.
  Mr. Speaker, our preference would be to send a bill to the President 
to sign today; however, the majority is insisting on amending the 
Senate legislation and sending this bill back to the Senate instead of 
to the President. While we do not object to a policy of allowing donor 
acknowledgement, we are concerned that amending the Senate amendment 
will unnecessarily delay enactment of this legislation.
  Given this is the only option we have to support the Vietnam Memorial 
Visitor Center, we support passage of this bill, and I reserve the 
balance of my time.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. At this time, I reserve the balance of my time as 
I will be the last speaker.
  Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield as much time as he may 
consume to a Vietnam War veteran, the distinguished gentleman from 
American Samoa (Mr. Faleomavaega).
  (Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA asked and was given permission to revise and extend 
his remarks.)
  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Utah and 
the gentleman from the Northern Mariana Islands for their management of 
this important legislation. I certainly want to pay a special tribute 
to my good friend, the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), for his 
authorship of this bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this resolution to 
amend the Senate amendment to H.R. 588, the Vietnam Veterans Donor 
Acknowledgement Act of 2013.
  I want to thank my good friend again, Congressman Don Young from 
Alaska, for his leadership on this very important issue. He has always 
been a strong supporter of our military servicemembers and veterans and 
has been instrumental in moving forward to building the Education 
Center at the Wall that will educate the millions of visitors to the 
Vietnam Veterans Memorial about its history and purpose.
  Mr. Speaker, last month the House, with overwhelming support, passed 
H.R. 588, the Vietnam Veterans Donor Acknowledgement Act of 2013. As we 
all know, H.R. 588 is supported by all the major veterans' 
organizations throughout the country. Unfortunately, during its 
consideration, the Senate significantly amended the bill, which has 
drastically altered the original intent of the bill. Much of the 
additions to H.R. 588 have not been evaluated or considered by way of 
markup, by either the Senate or the House, which is critical in 
considering any legislation. For this reason, my colleague today offers 
this resolution to reinstate the original bipartisan language.
  Mr. Speaker, as a Vietnam veteran myself, I strongly believe that my 
fellow soldiers and I have waited long enough for the construction of 
this important educational center. It will benefit the many tourists 
that visit our Nation's capital and educate and inform many of those 
who question why the thousands of names are engraved on such an 
extraordinary memorial.
  Mr. Speaker, it is so beautiful to see that our veterans coming from 
the Gulf War are being praised by the American public, which is great. 
Unfortunately, those of us who were part of the Vietnam legacy of the 
war that occurred at that time did not have a very sweet welcoming home 
I can say, Mr. Speaker, being called ``baby killers'' and 
``warmongers'' and all of this. To this day I'm still very bitter in 
terms of the treatment of our soldiers and veterans who come from that 
terrible war that our country was involved in.

  This education center is so critical to educate the American people--
to educate America for that matter--so that they will understand and 
better appreciate the sacrifices and the contributions that our 
veterans and those who wore the armed services uniform made in 
protection of this country.
  Again, I thank my dear friend, Mr. Young from Alaska, and I urge my 
colleagues to support this bill.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. SABLAN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back 
the balance of my time.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. I appreciate the comments that were given by the 
gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), the gentleman from the Northern 
Mariana Islands (Mr. Sablan), and I especially respect and appreciate 
the comments by the gentleman from American Samoa, who has done so 
much, and I appreciate all of those. In everything that we are doing, 
in fact, their comments were right on; that what we are trying to do is 
ensure that what we do here is to return to the cliche of the House, 
which is regular order, which means we go through a legitimate process 
of trying to look at something instead of just flying by the seat of 
our pants.
  Therefore, because this was changed significantly in the Senate 
without much input at all, we are simply doing two things. First of 
all, we'll be removing the provisions effected by the Senate changes so 
that the Vietnam Visitors Center can move forward under this bill 
without any delay, and it will enhance the ability to raise their 
private funds, but also we want to give careful and due consideration 
to the Senate-added provisions.
  So the text of the Senate language affecting future memorials is 
being introduced today as a standalone bill in the House. We will have 
a public hearing. We will go through the process, to be held very soon 
on this particular bill, and then further action by the committee will 
follow. Once again, this is our process to re-ensure regular order.
  I urge my colleagues to vote for this particular resolution, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Utah (Mr. Bishop) that the House suspend the rules and 
agree to the resolution, H. Res. 264.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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