Date: 2014-05-07
Speaker: CAROLYN B. MALONEY (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: New York

Madam Speaker. I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Madam Speaker. the National Womens History Museum has a rightful place in our Nations Capital. and it is very appropriate that we are considering this legislation the week of Mothers Day. I believe we should all be able to agree that. when our children and their children visit our Nations Capital. they should be inspired by the stories of the men and women who helped shape this country. Sadly. today. that is not the case. Womens contributions to our country are largely missing from our national museums. memorials. statues. and textbooks. The bill before us today seeks to finally change that. It would be the first National Womens History Museum in Washington and the first in the United States of Americas and. I believe. the first in the entire world that would chronicle the important contributions of American women to America. H.R. 863 would create a bipartisan. eightperson commission to develop a plan and recommendations for a National Womens History Museum in our Nations Capital. The commission. which would be funded entirely with private donations. would have 18 months to submit its recommendations to Congress and the President. Congress will then have to consider these recommendations. and a second bill would be needed to support the establishment of a womens museum. so the bill before us enables a commission to study this and for Congress. then. to react to their proposals. Now. I would like to stress that this has been a very strong. bipartisan effort. I am proud to have worked on this bill with Congresswoman MARSHA BLACKBURN. who has been a wonderful partner and has done so much to get us where we are today. She has been outstanding. Delegate ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON has been a great champion of this effort for years. along with Congresswoman CYNTHIA LUMMIS and many. many other Members from both parties whose support has been absolutely essential. I would like to thank Speaker BOEHNER. Democratic Leader PELOSI. Majority Leader CANTOR. and Democratic Whip STENY HOYER for their support as well. Thank you to the leadership and members of the House Administration and Natural Resources Committee for ushering this legislation through their committees with unanimous support. Congressmen BRADY and MILLER and Congressmen DEFAZIO and HASTINGS. We are all working on this together because we believe that ensuring our countrys full story is told. not just half of it. is part of our patriotic responsibility that rises above party lines. and we are working hard to make sure that this is a bill that can be supported by Members of both parties. As I mentioned. no public funds would be used to support this commission. and the commission is required to consider a plan for the museum to be constructed and operated by private funds only. No taxpayer dollars will be involved. Most importantly. neither this bill nor the commission it would create would set the content of this museum. That part will come later. after Congress acts on the commissions recommendations and the museum is finally established. One could imagine a museum featuring original women thinkers ranging from Ayn Rand. who authored "Atlas Shrugged." to Mary Whiton Calkins. Ms. Rand. I suspect you may know about her. but you may not have heard of Ms. Calkins. She was born in 1863 and studied at Harvard. under the influential American philosopher. William James. who believed her Ph.D. to be the most brilliant examination for a Ph.D. that he had ever seen. but Mary was not granted a degree because. at that time. Harvard had a policy against conferring degrees on women. Despite the setback. she went on to become a charter member of the American Philosophical Association and the first woman president of the American Psychological Association. But most people have never heard of her or her accomplishments because when the story of America has been told. the story of many remarkable women has all too often been left out. Currently in the Nations Capital and near The Mall or on The Mall. there is an Air and Space Museum. a Spy Museum. a Textile Museum. a National Postal Museum. even a Crime and Punishment Museum and a media museum. These are all wonderful. enriching institutions that are destinations for millions of visitors every year. But there is no museum in the country that shows the full scope of the history of the amazing. brilliant. courageous. innovative. and sometimes defiant women who have helped to shape our history and make this country what it is. Even though women make up 50 percent of the population. a survey of 18 history textbooks found that only 10 percent of the individuals identified in the texts were women. less than 5 percent of the 2.400 National Historic Landmarks chronicle the achievements of women. and of the 210 statues in the United States Capitol. only nine are of female leaders. As an example. while nearly every high school student learns about the midnight ride of Paul Revere. how many of them learn about Sybil Ludington? She is the 16yearold whose midnight ride to send word to her fathers troops that the British were coming was longer than Paul Reveres. just as important. and. in many ways. was even more remarkable. But her ride has been long forgotten. On display in our Capitol Rotunda is a statue of three courageous women who fought so hard for women to gain the right to vote. And it is my hope that in 2020. on the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote. that we will open the doors to this important museum. I urge the passage of this long overdue legislation. and I reserve the balance of my time.