II 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1592 

To reauthorize the Underground Railroad Educational and Cultural Program. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 12, 2007 

Mr. BROWN (for himself, Mr. VOINOVICH, Mr. OBAMA, and Mr. ALEXANDER) 

introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 

Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

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, 

3 SECTION 1. UNDERGROUND RAILROAD EDUCATIONAL AND 

4 CULTURAL PROGRAM. 

5 (a) PROGRAM ESTABLISHED.—The Secretary of 

6 Education, in consultation and cooperation with the Sec7 retary of the Interior, is authorized to make grants to 1 

8 or more nonprofit educational organizations that are es9 tablished to research, display, interpret, and collect arti10 facts relating to the history of the Underground Railroad. 

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1 (b) GRANT AGREEMENT.—Each nonprofit edu2 cational organization awarded a grant under this section 

3 shall enter into an agreement with the Secretary of Edu4 cation. Each such agreement shall require the organiza5 tion— 

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

7 interpret the artifacts related to the history of the 

8 Underground Railroad, and to make the interpretive 

9 efforts available to institutions of higher education 

10 that award a baccalaureate or graduate degree; 

11 (2) to demonstrate substantial private support 

12 for the facility through the implementation of a pub13 lic-private partnership between a State or local pub14 lic entity and a private entity for the support of the 

15 facility, which private entity shall provide matching 

16 funds for the support of the facility in an amount 

17 equal to 4 times the amount of the contribution of 

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

19 than 20 percent of the matching funds may be pro20 vided by the Federal Government; 

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

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

23 the facility; 

24 (4) to establish a network of satellite centers 

25 throughout the United States to help disseminate inmstockstill on PROD1PC66 with BILLS

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1 formation regarding the Underground Railroad 

2 throughout the United States, if such satellite cen3 ters raise 80 percent of the funds required to estab4 lish the satellite centers from non-Federal public and 

5 private sources; 

6 (5) to establish the capability to electronically 

7 link the facility with other local and regional facili8 ties that have collections and programs that inter9 pret the history of the Underground Railroad; and 

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

11 organization receives funding under this section, a 

12 report to the Secretary of Education that contains— 

13 (A) a description of the programs and ac14 tivities supported by the funding; 

15 (B) the audited financial statement of the 

16 organization for the preceding fiscal year; 

17 (C) a plan for the programs and activities 

18 to be supported by the funding as the Secretary 

19 may require; and 

20 (D) an evaluation of the programs and ac21 tivities supported by the funding as the Sec22 retary may require. 

23 (c) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

24 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

25 $6,000,000 for fiscal year 2008, $6,000,000 for fiscal year 

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1 2009, $6,000,000 for fiscal year 2010, $3,000,000 for fis2 cal year 2011, and $3,000,000 for fiscal year 2012. 

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