49–010 

Calendar No. 406 

109TH CONGRESS REPORT " ! SENATE 2d Session 109–244 

UKRAINE FAMINE MEMORIAL 

APRIL 20, 2006.—Ordered to be printed 

Filed under authority of the order of the Senate of April 7, 2006 

Mr. DOMENICI, from the Committee on Energy and Natural 

Resources, submitted the following 

R E P O R T 

[To accompany H.R. 562] 

The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was 

referred the Act (H.R. 562) to authorize the Government of the 

Ukraine to establish a memorial on Federal land in the District of 

Columbia to honor the victims of the manmade famine that occurred in Ukraine in 1932–1933, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon without amendment and recommends that 

the Act do pass. 

PURPOSE OF THE MEASURE

The purpose of H.R. 562 is to authorize the Government of 

Ukraine to establish a memorial on Federal land in the District of 

Columbia to honor the victims of the famine and genocide that occurred in Ukraine in 1932 and 1933. 

BACKGROUND AND NEED

During 1932 and 1933, Soviet leader Josef Stalin moved to suppress nationalist and anti-Bolshevik urges among ethnic Ukrainians. To pacify the Ukrainians, Stalin set impossibly high grain 

quotas. Farmers who failed to meet the quotas had their other food 

confiscated. Those who were found in possession of even meager 

portions of grain reserved for their families were often executed for 

‘‘withholding’’ grain. 

As a result of Stalin’s actions, millions of Ukrainians starved to 

death during the winter of 1932–1933. Ukrainians call this forced 

starvation the Holodomor and historians estimate that between 5 


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and 10 million people died during the event. Twenty-six nations, 

including the United States, have recognized Stalin’s ‘‘famine’’ as 

an act of genocide. 

H.R. 562 would authorize the government of Ukraine to establish 

a memorial to the famine victims on Federal land in the District 

of Columbia. The bill would require the memorial to comply with 

the Commemorative Works Act. However, the bill would exempt 

the memorial from 4 provisions of the Works Act: two provisions 

that require memorials to commemorate American history and two 

provisions that require the Secretary to maintain and preserve the 

memorial. The memorial would be built with non-Federal funds. 

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

H.R. 562 was introduced by Representative Levin and others on 

February 2, 2005. The bill passed the House of Representatives on 

November 16, 2005, on a voice vote. It was referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on November 17, 2005. 

The Subcommittee on National Parks held a hearing on H.R. 562 

on February 16, 2006. At the business meeting on March 15, 2006, 

the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources ordered H.R. 562 

favorably reported. 

COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION

The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in open business session on March 15, 2006, by a unanimous voice vote of a 

quorum present, recommends that the Senate pass H.R. 562. 

SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

Section 1(a) authorizes the government of Ukraine to establish, 

on Federal land in the District of Columbia, a memorial to victims 

of the Ukrainian famine and genocide of 1932 and 1933. 

Subsection (b) requires compliance with the Commemorative 

Works Act, with four minor exceptions: It waives two provisions 

that require the memorial to commemorate American history and 

two provisions that require the Secretary to maintain and preserve 

the memorial. 

Section 2 states that the United States government will not pay 

any expenses for the establishment or maintenance of this memorial. 

COST AND BUDGETARY CONSIDERATIONS

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

H.R. 562—An act to authorize the government of Ukraine to establish a memorial on federal land in the District of Columbia to 

honor the victims of the manmade famine that occurred in the 

Ukraine in 1932–1933 

CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 562 would have no impact on 

the federal budget. Enacting the legislation would not affect direct 

spending or revenues. H.R. 562 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. 


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H.R. 562 would authorize the government of Ukraine to establish 

a memorial honoring the men, women, and children who perished 

by famine under communist rule in Ukraine from 1932 to 1933. 

The legislation would require that the establishment of the memorial comply with the major provisions of the Commemorative Works 

Act. As a memorial gift from a foreign nation, the government of 

Ukraine would be responsible for constructing, maintaining, and 

preserving the memorial. No federal funds could be used for those 

purposes. 

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Matthew Pickford. 

This estimate was approved by Peter H. Fontaine, 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 

H.R. 562. 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 H.R. 562, as ordered reported. 

EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS

The views of the Administration on H.R. 562 were included in 

testimony received by the Committee at a hearing on the bill on 

February 16, 2006. This testimony follows: 

STATEMENT OF JOHN PARSONS, ASSOCIATE REGIONAL DIRECTOR, NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION, NATIONAL PARK

SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, thank 

you for the opportunity to appear before you today to 

present the Department of the Interior’s views on H.R. 

562, a bill to authorize the Government of Ukraine to establish a memorial on Federal land in the District of Columbia to honor the victims of the man-made famine that 

occurred in Ukraine in 1932–1933. 

The Department opposes enactment of this legislation 

because it duplicates efforts currently underway to establish a memorial that would honor all victims of communism worldwide. This memorial, the Victims of Communism Memorial, was authorized by P.L. 103–199 on December 17, 1993. 

H.R. 562 would authorize the Government of Ukraine to 

establish a memorial on Federal land in the District of Columbia to honor the men, women, and children who perished by famine under communist rule in Ukraine from 

1932–1933. The bill would require that the establishment 

of the memorial comply with the major provisions of the 

Commemorative Works Act, but contains minor exceptions 

to four provisions. Two provisions require a commemoraVerDate Aug 31 2005 01:22 Apr 22, 2006 Jkt 049010 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6659 Sfmt 6969 E:\HR\OC\SR244.XXX SR244

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tive work to have significance to the American Experience, 

and two relate to the requirement that the Secretary 

maintain and preserve the memorial. As a memorial gift 

from a foreign nation, the Government of Ukraine would 

be responsible for establishing, constructing, maintaining 

and preserving the memorial. 

The people of Ukraine were brought to the verge of 

physical extinction in 1932–1933 when a man-made disaster resulted in the deaths of millions of innocent men, 

women, and children. The Soviet Government, under the 

political control of Joseph Stalin, used food as a weapon to 

annihilate or suppress the political and cultural identity of 

the Ukrainian people. To fill impossibly high grain quotas, 

assigned brigades seized the 1932 crop from one of the 

world’s most fertile farmlands. Those who resisted giving 

up their crops were killed. Millions of people starved while 

stockpiles of seized grain rotted by the tons. Attempts 

were made by the United States Government to intercede 

at the height of the famine to provide food and other necessary supplies to help the starving people of Ukraine. In 

1988, the United States Commission on the Ukraine Famine reported that the people of Ukraine were victims of 

genocide, or ‘‘starved to death in a man-made famine.’’ The National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission 

(Commission), established in 1986 to review proposals to 

establish memorials and provide its recommendation to 

the Secretary of the Interior and committees of Congress, 

reviewed this proposal on March 15, 2005. While it supported a similar proposal in the 108th Congress, the Commission has since considered revisions made by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (Foundation) to 

expand its effort as a two-fold commemoration. The Foundation is proposing a memorial to victims of communism 

worldwide that would be supplemented by a virtual museum to tell the history of the impact of communism. The 

Commission also concluded that because the Victims of 

Communism Memorial would encompass the history of the 

Ukraine Famine as well as that of 120 different nationalities, ethnic groups, and countries that were also victims of 

communism, it would not endorse legislation proposed to 

provide a separate, specific recognition of this or other national or ethnic groups that already would be recognized in 

the Victims of Communism Memorial. 

We agree with the approach of commemorating the millions of victims of communism worldwide, including those 

who suffered immeasurably during the horrific Ukraine 

Famine, through the Victims of Communism Memorial. 

While the victims of the Ukraine Famine obviously deserve 

recognition, we believe that creating separate memorials 

for individual groups would detract from the overall message of the Victims of Communism Memorial and could, 

potentially, create an unfortunate competition amongst 

various groups for limited memorial sites in our Nation’s 

Capital. The Foundation envisions the Victims of Communism Memorial as a visible symbol for all those who 


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have suffered atrocities to human rights and perished. The 

Foundation secured site approvals for placement of the 

Victims of Communism Memorial within sight of the 

United States Capitol and design approvals in 2005. The 

Foundation plans to begin construction on the memorial 

this spring. 

Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to comment. This concludes my prepared remarks and I will be 

happy to answer any questions you or other committee 

members might have. 

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 H.R. 562, as ordered reported. 

Æ 


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