[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 56 (Monday, April 9, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S2001]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           ACSC CONGRESS WEEK

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I would call my colleagues' attention 
to the recent 229th anniversary of the first quorum of the U.S. 
Congress.
  The House of Representatives achieved a quorum on April 1, 1789. Five 
days later, on April 6, the Senate marked that milestone.
  Each year, the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress, 
ACSC, commemorates this anniversary by observing Congress Week during 
the first week of April. Commemorative events around the country 
encourage students to explore the work of the U.S. Congress and its 
constitutional role in our government and promote advanced scholarly 
research.
  The ACSC was founded in 2003. It includes more than 40 organizations 
and institutions that help to preserve and make available the archival 
records of Members of Congress.
  Each year, the annual meeting of the ACSC brings together Members of 
Congress who create the records, archivists who preserve the records, 
teachers who incorporate them into their lesson plans, and scholars who 
study them in order to advance our understanding of congressional 
history and the evolution of the political process. This year's annual 
meeting will be hosted by the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at 
the University of Kansas.
  Thanks to the work of the ACSC and its member organizations, we have 
substantially improved the number and research value of congressional 
collections being preserved nationwide, producing an educational 
resource for legislative branch studies that rivals the presidential 
library system.
  I am happy to report that the McConnell Center at the University of 
Louisville is one such member organization. Created in 1991, the 
McConnell Center nurtures ``Kentucky's next generation of great 
leaders'' with programs focused on service, leadership, and civic 
education. Last spring, at the annual meeting of the ACSC, I had the 
pleasure of participating in a fireside chat with the McConnell Center 
archivist, Deborah Skaggs Speth. We discussed the importance of Members 
preserving their records, which shed important light on what we do on 
behalf of the American people, and how we do it.
  In 2008, Congress unanimously passed H.Con.Res. 307. It recommended 
that Members' records be properly maintained, that each Member take all 
necessary measures to manage and preserve their records, that they 
arrange for the deposit or donation of their records with a research 
institution that is properly equipped to care for them, and that they 
make them available for educational purposes at an appropriate time.
  Organizations like the McConnell Center and the Dole Institute, in 
collaboration with the ACSC, are diligently working to ensure the 
preservation of records for generations of students and scholars.
  I encourage my colleagues to preserve the records of their service in 
a research institution, where they can contribute to this vital, 
necessary, and growing component of our Nation's documentary heritage.

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