IIB 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2707 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 31, 2007 

Received 

AUGUST 3, 2007 

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 

Pensions 

AN ACT 

To reauthorize the Underground Railroad Educational and 

Cultural Program. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. UNDERGROUND RAILROAD EDUCATIONAL AND 

2 CULTURAL PROGRAM. 

3 (a) PROGRAM ESTABLISHED.—The Secretary of 

4 Education, in consultation and cooperation with the Sec5 retary of the Interior, is authorized to make grants to one 

6 or more nonprofit educational organizations that are es7 tablished to research, display, interpret, and collect arti8 facts relating to the history of the Underground Railroad. 

9 (b) GRANT AGREEMENT.—Each nonprofit edu10 cational organization awarded a grant under this section 

11 shall enter into an agreement with the Secretary of Edu12 cation. Each such agreement shall require the organiza13 tion— 

14 (1) to establish a facility to house, display, and 

15 interpret the artifacts related to the history of the 

16 Underground Railroad, and to make the interpretive 

17 efforts available to institutions of higher education 

18 that award a baccalaureate or graduate degree; 

19 (2) to demonstrate substantial private support 

20 for the facility through the implementation of a pub21 lic-private partnership between a State or local pub22 lic entity and a private entity for the support of the 

23 facility, which private entity shall provide matching 

24 funds for the support of the facility in an amount 

25 equal to 4 times the amount of the contribution of 

26 the State or local public entity, except that not more 


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1 than 20 percent of the matching funds may be pro2 vided by the Federal Government; 

3 (3) to create an endowment to fund any and all 

4 shortfalls in the costs of the on-going operations of 

5 the facility; 

6 (4) to establish a network of satellite centers 

7 throughout the United States to help disseminate in8 formation regarding the Underground Railroad 

9 throughout the United States, if such satellite cen10 ters raise 80 percent of the funds required to estab11 lish the satellite centers from non-Federal public and 

12 private sources; 

13 (5) to establish the capability to electronically 

14 link the facility with other local and regional facili15 ties that have collections and programs which inter16 pret the history of the Underground Railroad; and 

17 (6) to submit, for each fiscal year for which the 

18 organization receives funding under this section, a 

19 report to the Secretary of Education that contains— 

20 (A) a description of the programs and ac21 tivities supported by the funding; 

22 (B) the audited financial statement of the 

23 organization for the preceding fiscal year; 


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1 (C) a plan for the programs and activities 

2 to be supported by the funding as the Secretary 

3 may require; and 

4 (D) an evaluation of the programs and ac5 tivities supported by the funding as the Sec6 retary may require. 

7 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

8 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

9 $3,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2008 through 

10 2012. 

Passed the House of Representatives July 30, 2007. 

Attest: LORRAINE C. MILLER, 

Clerk. 


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