[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 49 (Thursday, March 27, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E460-E461]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE INTRODUCTION OF A BILL TO DIRECT THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON THE LIBRARY 
   TO ACCEPT A STATUE DEPICTING PIERRE L'ENFANT FROM THE DISTRICT OF 
COLUMBIA AND TO PROVIDE FOR THE PERMANENT DISPLAY OF THE STATUE IN THE 
                         UNITED STATES CAPITOL

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 27, 2014

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, in this month in which Pierre 
L'Enfant was hired to design the plan for the District for Columbia in 
1791, I introduce a bill to direct the Joint Committee on the Library 
to accept a statue depicting Pierre L'Enfant from the District of 
Columbia and to provide for the permanent display of the statue in the 
United States Capitol.
  Pierre L'Enfant was born in France in 1754. He was an engineer and an 
architect, and he traveled to the United States to serve with the 
United States in the Revolutionary War. In March 1791, L'Enfant was 
hired to develop the design for the District of Columbia. L'Enfant's 
design for the city was so remarkable that it remains and is cherished 
today in the nation's capital and throughout this country. L'Enfant's 
design envisioned a federal and residential city with diagonal streets 
propelling from Congress and the President's home, beautiful boulevards 
on local streets and neighborhoods, and open spaces for monuments, 
memorials and historical structures, all of which largely

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remain intact, protected as a historical treasure.
  In 2006, the residents of the District of Columbia chose L'Enfant as 
one of the top ten people that have given distinguishable service to 
the District of Columbia and the selection committee created by the 
D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities chose L'Enfant as the second 
statute from D.C. to be placed in the United States Capitol. The 
District's first choice for a statute was Frederick Douglass, and I am 
pleased that the Douglass statue now sits in Emancipation Hall. Because 
the United States Capitol does not currently appropriately recognize 
the contributions of Pierre L'Enfant and because D.C. residents and 
stakeholders chose L'Enfant as a distinguishable Washingtonian, this 
bill would require the Joint Committee on the Library to place the 
Pierre L'Enfant statute in the United States Capitol.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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