I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1565 
To provide for the issuance of a semipostal in order to afford a convenient 
means by which members of the public may contribute towards the 
acquisition of works of art to honor female pioneers in U.S. Government 
service and American life. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 17, 2009 
Ms. KAPTUR introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the 
Committee on House Administration, for a period to be subsequently de-
termined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To provide for the issuance of a semipostal in order to 
afford a convenient means by which members of the 
public may contribute towards the acquisition of works 
of art to honor female pioneers in U.S. Government 
service and American life. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Honoring Female Con-
gressional Pioneers Act of 2009’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The 75 women currently serving in the 
House of Representatives owe a debt of gratitude to 
all of their foremothers who broke down barriers, 
both in their election to, and in the important legis-
lative work they accomplished as Members of, the 
House of Representatives. 
(2) 5 women in particular stand out for their 
status as the ‘‘first’’ women in certain categories. 
(3) In 1916, Jeannette Rankin broke new 
ground by becoming the first woman elected to the 
House of Representatives, representing the State of 
Montana, first from 1917 to 1919 and later from 
1941 to 1943. 
(4) Jeannette Rankin’s first election was all the 
more remarkable, considering that it came 3 years 
before women’s suffrage was a legally guaranteed 
right throughout the United States. 
(5) Jeannette Rankin directly contributed to a 
woman’s right to vote when she introduced a resolu-
tion in 1919 to support a women’s suffrage amend-
ment to the Constitution of the United States. 
(6) Jeannette Rankin remained dedicated to a 
peaceful world, both by voting against the declara-
tions of World War I and World War II (and in fact 
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was the only Representative to vote against the dec-
laration of World War II) and by working tirelessly 
to promote peace during her years outside of Con-
gress. 
(7) In 1924, Mary Teresa Norton became the 
first Democratic woman elected to the House of 
Representatives, and one of a small number of 
women during that period who were elected in their 
own right and not to replace their husbands, rep-
resenting New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District 
from 1925 to 1951. 
(8) Mary Norton served as the chair of the 
Committee on the District of Columbia from 1931 to 
1937, effectively governing the city, which had no 
municipal government of its own at that time. 
(9) In 1934, Mary Norton became the first 
woman to chair a major political party in a State, 
as head of the New Jersey State Committee. 
(10) Mary Norton was instrumental in the 
drafting and passage in 1938 of a major piece of 
President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the 
Fair Labor Standards Act, which established a min-
imum wage, a maximum workweek, overtime pay, 
and a prohibition on child labor. 
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(11) In 1964, Patsy Takemoto Mink became 
the first Asian-American woman elected to the 
House of Representatives, representing Hawaii’s 2nd 
Congressional District from 1965 to 1977 and again 
from 1991 until her death in 2002. 
(12) Patsy Mink secured an assignment to the 
Committee on Education and Labor, for which her 
previous expertise and interests made her well suit-
ed, and used her time on that Committee to intro-
duce the first child care bill, as well as bills to pro-
vide for bilingual education, student loans, special 
education, and the Head Start program. 
(13) Patsy Mink gained passage in 1965 of leg-
islation to support the construction of schools in the 
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. 
(14) Patsy Mink established the Democratic 
Women’s Caucus in 1995 and served as its first 
chair. 
(15) In 1968, Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm 
made history by becoming the first African-Amer-
ican woman elected to the House of Representatives, 
representing New York’s 12th Congressional District 
until her retirement in 1983. 
(16) Shirley Chisholm was a founding member 
of the Congressional Black Caucus, a fierce advocate 
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for women’s rights and democracy, and a staunch 
opponent of the Vietnam War. 
(17) Shirley Chisholm was an outspoken advo-
cate for equal rights, early childhood education, fair 
labor standards, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. 
holiday effort. 
(18) Shirley Chisholm further cemented her 
place in history when she became the first African- 
American person to seek a major political party’s 
nomination for President in 1972. 
(19) In 1920, Edith Nourse Rogers became the 
first congresswoman from New England and, when 
she died in 1960 after 35 years of service to Massa-
chusetts, became the longest-serving Congress-
woman. 
(20) In 1929, Edith Rogers became the first 
woman to gavel the House of Representatives to 
order. 
(21) Edith Rogers became the first woman in 
Congress to have her name attached to a bill, which 
bill eventually achieved enactment in 1938 and es-
tablished the National Cancer Institute. 
(22) There is a genuine need to honor these 
women, and others like them, more often in our Na-
tion’s artistic and cultural venues. 
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SEC. 3. SPECIAL POSTAGE STAMP. 
In order to afford the public a convenient means by 
which to contribute towards the acquisition (for public dis-
play in the United States Capitol and other appropriate 
venues) of works of art honoring Jeannette Rankin, Mary 
Teresa Norton, Patsy Takemoto Mink, Shirley Anita St. 
Hill Chisholm, Edith Nourse Rogers, and other female 
pioneers in U.S. Government service and to American life, 
the United States Postal Service shall provide for the 
issuance and sale of a semipostal in accordance with sec-
tion 416 of title 39, United States Code, subject to the 
following: 
(1) DISPOSITION OF AMOUNTS RECEIVED.—All 
amounts becoming available from the sale of the 
semipostal shall be transferred by the Postal Service 
to the Capitol Preservation Commission and the 
House Fine Arts Board (which is hereby authorized 
to accept any such amounts) under such arrange-
ments as the Postal Service and those entities shall 
by mutual agreement establish in order to carry out 
the purposes of this Act. 
(2) NO
EFFECT
ON
AUTHORITY
TO
ISSUE 
OTHER STAMPS.—No semipostal issued pursuant to 
this Act shall be taken into account for purposes of 
applying any numerical limitation established under 
section 416(e)(1)(C) of such title 39. 
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SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS. 
For purposes of this Act— 
(1) the term ‘‘semipostal’’ has the meaning 
given such term by section 416(a)(1) of title 39, 
United States Code; 
(2) any determination of the ‘‘amounts becom-
ing available’’ from the sale of the semipostal de-
scribed in section 3 shall be made in accordance with 
section 416(d) of title 39, United States Code; 
(3) the term ‘‘Capitol Preservation Commis-
sion’’ means the United States Capitol Preservation 
Commission, established by section 801 of Public 
Law 100–696 (2 U.S.C. 2081); and 
(4) the term ‘‘House Fine Arts Board’’ means 
the House of Representatives Fine Arts Board, es-
tablished by section 1001 of Public Law 100–696 (2 
U.S.C. 2121). 
Æ 
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