[House Report 115-23]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


115th Congress   }                                      {       Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 1st Session     }                                      {       115-23

======================================================================



 
     FRED D. THOMPSON FEDERAL BUILDING AND UNITED STATES COURTHOUSE

                                _______
                                

    March 7, 2017.--Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be 
                                printed

                                _______
                                

 Mr. Shuster, from the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, 
                        submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                        [To accompany H.R. 375]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, to whom 
was referred the bill (H.R. 375) to designate the Federal 
building and United States courthouse located at 719 Church 
Street in Nashville, Tennessee, as the ``Fred D. Thompson 
Federal Building and United States Courthouse'', having 
considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment 
and recommend that the bill do pass.










                                CONTENTS

                                                                   Page
Purpose of Legislation...........................................     2
Background and Need for Legislation..............................     2
Hearings.........................................................     2
Legislative History and Consideration............................     2
Committee Votes..................................................     3
Committee Oversight Findings.....................................     3
New Budget Authority and Tax Expenditures........................     3
Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate........................     3
Performance Goals and Objectives.................................     4
Advisory of Earmarks.............................................     4
Duplication of Federal Programs..................................     4
Disclosure of Directed Rule Makings..............................     4
Federal Mandate Statement........................................     4
Preemption Clarification.........................................     4
Advisory Committee Statement.....................................     5
Applicability of Legislative Branch..............................     5
Section-by-Section Analysis of Legislation.......................     5
Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported............     5










                         PURPOSE OF LEGISLATION

    H.R. 375 designates the Federal building and United States 
courthouse located at 719 Church Street in Nashville, 
Tennessee, as the ``Fred D. Thompson Federal Building and 
United States Courthouse''.

                  BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION

    H.R. 375 designates the Federal building and United States 
courthouse located at 719 Church Street in Nashville, 
Tennessee, as the ``Fred D. Thompson Federal Building and 
United States Courthouse''.
    Fred D. Thompson was a lawyer, actor, and U.S. Senator. He 
was born in Sheffield, Alabama, in 1942 and attended public 
schools in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. He graduated from Memphis 
State University and received his law degree from Vanderbilt 
University in 1967. Early in his career, he served as an 
assistant U.S. attorney (1969-72) and later served as minority 
counsel with the Senate Select Committee on Presidential 
Campaign Activities, better known as the ``Watergate'' 
Committee (1973-74). It was then-counsel Thompson who inquired 
about the existence of tapes made of Oval Office conversations 
during the Watergate hearings. These tapes eventually led to 
President Richard Nixon's resignation.
    During his career, he served as special counsel to a number 
of other Senate committees including the Senate Committee on 
Foreign Relations (1980-81) and the Senate Intelligence 
Committee (1982). Senator Thompson also served as a member of 
the Tennessee Appellate Court Nominating Commission (1985-87). 
After returning to the private practice of law in Nashville, he 
represented the chairperson of the state parole board who 
unearthed a cash-for-clemency scheme involving the governor of 
Tennessee. This case was eventually made into the film, Marie, 
and Senator Thompson was cast to play himself, launching a 
career in film and television.
    In 1994, he ran for political office for the first time and 
was elected to fill the remaining two years of Vice President 
Al Gore's Senate term from Tennessee. He was re-elected in 1996 
to a full six-year term and served as Chairman of the Senate 
Committee on Governmental Affairs until his retirement in 2002. 
In 2007, Senator Thompson announced his candidacy for the U.S. 
presidency. In 2015, Senator Thompson died from a recurrence of 
lymphoma.

                                HEARINGS

    No hearings were held on H.R. 375.

                 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY AND CONSIDERATION

    On January 9, 2017, Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) 
introduced H.R. 375, a bill to designate the Federal building 
and United States courthouse located at 719 Church Street in 
Nashville, Tennessee, as the ``Fred D. Thompson Federal 
Building and United States Courthouse''.
    On February 28, 2017, the Committee on Transportation and 
Infrastructure met in open session. The Committee ordered the 
bill reported favorably to the House by voice vote with a 
quorum present.
    On September 22, 2016, Rep. Blackburn introduced H.R. 6135, 
which designated the Federal building and United States 
courthouse in Nashville, Tennessee, as the ``Fred D. Thompson 
Federal Building and United States Courthouse''. On November 
29, 2016, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 6135 by 
voice vote.

                            COMMITTEE VOTES

    Clause 3(b) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives requires each committee report to include the 
total number of votes cast for and against on each record vote 
on a motion to report and on any amendment offered to the 
measure or matter, and the names of those members voting for 
and against. There were no recorded votes taken in connection 
with consideration of H.R. 375.

                      COMMITTEE OVERSIGHT FINDINGS

    With respect to the requirements of clause 3(c)(1) of rule 
XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the 
Committee's oversight findings and recommendations are 
reflected in this report.

               NEW BUDGET AUTHORITY AND TAX EXPENDITURES

    Clause 3(c)(2) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives does not apply where a cost estimate and 
comparison prepared by the Director of the Congressional Budget 
Office under section 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 
1974 has been timely submitted prior to the filing of the 
report and is included in the report. Such a cost estimate is 
included in this report.

               CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE COST ESTIMATE

    With respect to the requirement of clause 3(c)(3) of rule 
XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and section 
402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the Committee has 
received the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 375 from the 
Director of the Congressional Budget Office:

                                     U.S. Congress,
                               Congressional Budget Office,
                                     Washington, DC, March 2, 2017.
Hon. Bill Shuster,
Chairman, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
reviewed H.R. 375, a bill to designate the federal building and 
United States Courthouse located at 719 Church Street in 
Nashville, Tennessee, as the ``Fred D. Thompson Federal 
Building and United States Courthouse,'' as ordered reported by 
the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on 
February 28, 2017.
    CBO estimates that enacting this legislation would have no 
significant effect on the federal budget and would not affect 
direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go 
procedures do not apply. CBO estimates that enacting the 
legislation would not increase net direct spending or on-budget 
deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods 
beginning in 2028.
    The bill 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.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Matthew 
Pickford.
            Sincerely,
                                                        Keith Hall.

                    PERFORMANCE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

    With respect to the requirement of clause 3(c)(4) of rule 
XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the 
performance goal and objective of this legislation is to 
designate the Federal building and United States courthouse 
located at 719 Church Street in Nashville, Tennessee, as the 
``Fred D. Thompson Federal Building and United States 
Courthouse''.

                          ADVISORY OF EARMARKS

    Pursuant to clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the House 
of Representatives, the Committee is required to include a list 
of congressional earmarks, limited tax benefits, or limited 
tariff benefits as defined in clause 9(e), 9(f), and 9(g) of 
rule XXI of the Rules of the House of Representatives. No 
provision in the bill includes an earmark, limited tax benefit, 
or limited tariff benefit under clause 9(e), 9(f), or 9(g) of 
rule XXI.

                    DUPLICATION OF FEDERAL PROGRAMS

    Pursuant to clause 3(c)(5) of rule XIII of the Rules of the 
House of Representatives, the Committee finds that no provision 
of H.R. 375 establishes or reauthorizes a program of the 
federal government known to be duplicative of another federal 
program, a program that was included in any report from the 
Government Accountability Office to Congress pursuant to 
section 21 of Public Law 111-139, or a program related to a 
program identified in the most recent Catalog of Federal 
Domestic Assistance.

                  DISCLOSURE OF DIRECTED RULE MAKINGS

    Pursuant to section 3(i) of H. Res. 5, 115th Cong. (2017), 
the Committee finds that enacting H.R. 375 does not direct the 
completion of a specific rule making within the meaning of 
section 551 of title 5, United States Code.

                       FEDERAL MANDATE STATEMENT

    The Committee adopts as its own the estimate of federal 
mandates prepared by the Director of the Congressional Budget 
Office pursuant to section 423 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform 
Act (Public Law 104-4).

                        PREEMPTION CLARIFICATION

    Section 423 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 
requires the report of any Committee on a bill or joint 
resolution to include a statement on the extent to which the 
bill or joint resolution is intended to preempt state, local, 
or tribal law. The Committee states that H.R. 375 does not 
preempt any state, local, or tribal law.

                      ADVISORY COMMITTEE STATEMENT

    No advisory committees within the meaning of section 5(b) 
of the Federal Advisory Committee Act are created by this 
legislation.

                  APPLICABILITY OF LEGISLATIVE BRANCH

    The Committee finds that the legislation does not relate to 
the terms and conditions of employment or access to public 
services or accommodations within the meaning of section 
102(b)(3) of the Congressional Accountability Act (Public Law 
104-1).

               SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF LEGISLATION

Section 1. Designation

    Section 1 designates the Federal building and United States 
courthouse located at 719 Church Street in Nashville, 
Tennessee, as the ``Fred D. Thompson Federal Building and 
United States Courthouse''.

Section 2. References

    Section 2 deems any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
Federal building and United States courthouse referred to in 
section 1 as a reference to the ``Fred D. Thompson Federal 
Building and United States Courthouse''.

         CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW MADE BY THE BILL, AS REPORTED

    H.R. 375 makes no changes in existing law.

                                  [all]