[Senate Report 114-129]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                     Calendar No. 209
114th Congress        {                        }               Report
                                 SENATE
 1st Session          {                        }              114-129
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            THURGOOD MARSHALL'S ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDY ACT

                                _______
                                

               September 9, 2015.--Ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

  Ms. Murkowski, from the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, 
                        submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                         [To accompany S. 610]

    The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was 
referred the bill (S. 610) to authorize the Secretary of the 
Interior to conduct a special resource study of P.S. 103 in 
West Baltimore, Maryland and for other purposes, having 
considered the same, reports favorably thereon without 
amendment and recommends that the bill do pass.

                                PURPOSE

    The purpose of S. 610 is to authorize the Secretary of the 
Interior to conduct a special resource study of Public School 
(P.S.) 103 in West Baltimore, Maryland.

                          BACKGROUND AND NEED

    One of the nation's leading lawyers and a hero of the Civil 
Rights movement, Justice Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993), was 
born, raised, and educated in Baltimore, Maryland. As a young 
attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People, he began his fight to desegregate public 
schools in Baltimore. He ultimately argued and won the seminal 
Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education, which ended 
the policy of segregation in public schools. Marshall was 
appointed to the United States Supreme Court in 1967 by 
President Johnson and served until October 1991. Justice 
Marshall was the first African American to serve on the Supreme 
Court.
    The elementary school Justice Marshall attended as a child, 
Public School 103, still stands in the Upton neighborhood of 
West Baltimore. A story is told that a young Thurgood Marshall 
studied the United States Constitution in the basement of the 
building while serving detention. As a segregated school, P.S. 
103 tells the story of racial segregation in America and marks 
the academic beginning of one of the country's foremost legal 
minds and a pioneer of the civil rights movement.
    This legislation would authorize the National Park Service 
(NPS) to undertake a special resource study of P.S. 103, and 
any other resources in the neighborhood surrounding P.S. 103 
that relate to the early life of Thurgood Marshall, to evaluate 
whether this site meets the NPS's criteria of national 
significance, suitability, and feasibility for potential 
designation of the area as a unit of the NPS, and the need for 
NPS management of the resource versus management by state or 
local government entities or other private or non-profit 
organizations. The study is informational; Congress would still 
have to act on separate legislation to establish a unit of the 
National Park System.

                          LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

    S. 610 was introduced by Senators Cardin and Mikulski on 
February 27, 2015. The Subcommittee on National Parks held a 
hearing on the bill on June 10, 2015.
    Senators Cardin and Mikulski introduced a similar bill in 
the 113th Congress, S. 103, on January 23, 2013.
    The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources met in open 
business session on July 30, 2015, and ordered S. 610 favorably 
reported.

                        COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION

    The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in 
open business session on July 30, 2015, by a majority voice 
vote of a quorum present, recommends that the Senate pass S. 
610.

                      SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

    Section 1 contains the short title, the ``Thurgood 
Marshall's Elementary School Study Act.''
    Section 2 contains definitions.
    Section 3 directs the Secretary of the Interior to conduct 
a special resource study of Public School 103 and any other 
resources in the neighborhood surrounding P.S. 103 that relate 
to the early life of Thurgood Marshall. Section 3(b) requires 
the study to: evaluate the national significance of the site; 
determine the suitability and feasibility of designating the 
site as a unit of the National Park System; include cost 
estimates for any necessary acquisition, development, operation 
and maintenance of the site; consult with interested government 
entities, private and non-profit organizations or other 
interested individuals; and identify alternatives for the 
management, administration and protection of the site. Section 
3(c) requires that the study shall be conducted in accordance 
with section 100507 of title 54, United States Code, which sets 
forth criteria for National Park Service special resource 
studies. Section 3(d) requires the Secretary to submit a report 
that describes the findings and conclusions of the study and 
any recommendations to the House Natural Resources Committee 
and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee within 
three years after the funds are made available to carry out the 
study.

                   COST AND BUDGETARY CONSIDERATIONS

    The following estimate of costs of this measure has been 
provided by the Congressional Budget Office:

S. 610--Thurgood Marshall's Elementary School Study Act

    S. 610 would direct the Secretary of the Interior to study 
the suitability and feasibility of designating P.S. 103 in West 
Baltimore, Maryland, as a unit of the National Park System 
(P.S. 103 is the public school that Supreme Court Justice 
Thurgood Marshall attended as a child). CBO estimates that 
carrying out the proposed study would cost about $200,000; such 
spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated 
funds. Enacting S. 610 would not affect direct spending or 
revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
    S. 610 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and 
would not affect the budgets of state, local, or tribal 
governments.
    The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Marin Burnett. 
The estimate was approved by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy 
Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.

                      REGULATORY IMPACT EVALUATION

    In compliance with paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee makes the following 
evaluation of the regulatory impact which would be incurred in 
carrying out S. 610. The bill is not a regulatory measure in 
the sense of imposing Government-established standards or 
significant economic responsibilities on private individuals 
and businesses.
    No personal information would be collected in administering 
the program. Therefore, there would be no impact on personal 
privacy.
    Little, if any, additional paperwork would result from the 
enactment of S. 610, as ordered reported.

                   CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED SPENDING

    S. 610, as ordered reported, does not contain any 
congressionally directed spending items, limited tax benefits, 
or limited tariff benefits as defined in rule XLIV of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate.

                        EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS

    The testimony provided by the National Park Service at the 
June 10, 2015, Subcommittee hearing on S. 610 follows:

Statement of Victor Knox, Associate Director, Park Planning, Facilities 
      and Lands, National Park Service, Department of the Interior

    Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, thank you for 
the opportunity to provide the Department of the Interior's 
views on S. 610, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to 
conduct a special resource study of P.S. 103 in West Baltimore, 
Maryland, and for other purposes.
    The Department supports enactment of S. 610. However, we 
believe that priority should be given to the 33 previously 
authorized studies for potential units of the National Park 
System, potential new National Heritage Areas, and potential 
additions to the National Trails System and National Wild and 
Scenic Rivers System that have not yet been transmitted to 
Congress.
    S. 610 authorizes a special resource study of Public School 
103 and other resources in the neighborhood that relate to the 
early life of Thurgood Marshall in Baltimore, Maryland. This 
study would determine whether this site meets the National Park 
Service's criteria for inclusion in the National Park System of 
national significance, suitability, and feasibility, and need 
for National Park Service management. The study would also 
consider other alternatives for preservation, protection, and 
interpretation of the resources by the Federal government, 
State or local government entities, or private and non-profit 
entities. Alternatives might include, for example, the 
designation of the site as an affiliated area of the National 
Park Service, where the National Park Service would provide 
technical assistance to the site but not own or manage it. We 
estimate the cost of the study to range from $200,000 to 
$300,000, based on similar types of studies conducted in recent 
years.
    P.S. 103 was originally built in 1877 for West Baltimore's 
white immigrant population but, in 1911, it became a segregated 
African-American school serving the Upton community of West 
Baltimore. The school is significant for its role in the 
education of Thurgood Marshall, who is best known as the lead 
counsel for the landmark school desegregation case, Brown v. 
Board of Education (1954) and as the first African-American 
Supreme Court Justice. Marshall's life and his life's work 
began in Baltimore: it is the city where he was born in 1908, 
where he began his public education, and where he won his first 
civil rights cases as a young attorney. Thurgood Marshall 
attended P.S. 103 from 1st through 8th grade (1914 to 1921).
    Marshall's accomplishments in systematically dismantling 
the legal framework for Jim Crow segregation are the foundation 
upon which the success of the Civil Rights Movement was built. 
P.S. 103 is owned by the City of Baltimore and is included in 
the Baltimore National Heritage Area.
    Mr. Chairman, this concludes our prepared statement. I 
would be happy to respond to any questions about this matter.

                        CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

    In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee notes that no 
changes in existing law are made by the bill S. 610, as ordered 
reported.