Collins pushes Senate on creating Smithsonian women's history museum
Image / U.S. Senate Rules Committee video screen image
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Wednesday that more than 6,000 Maine businesses have received $462 million in the second round of PPP lending.
Maine's senior member of Congress, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, testified before the Senate Rules Committee Tuesday in support of an American Women's History Museum at the Smithsonian Institute, a project she has been advocating for nearly two decades.
Collins has partnered with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on a proposal for the museum since 2003, along with Sen. Barbara Mikulski, a Democrat from Maryland who served from 1987 to 2017. Collins and Feinstein introduced their most recent attempt to get a museum built, The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Act, last year. The House of Representatives passed companion legislation with overwhelming bipartisan support in February.
In March, Collins and Feinstein sent a letter to Senate leadership, urging them to bring up the legislation for consideration by the full Senate as soon as possible.
Collins told the committee Tuesday that this is an apt year for it to finally happen.
“This year, as we commemorate the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage and the decades-long fight for women’s equality at the ballot box, it is fitting that we at long last establish an institution in our nation’s capital to honor American women," Collins said. "I can think of no better way to honor those women and that momentous achievement than by passing The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Act.
"In Washington we enjoy many museums along the National Mall that commemorate various aspects of our history and our culture," she said. "We even have a museum that celebrates buildings. Surely if we can have a museum that celebrates buildings, we ought to have one and are long overdue in establishing one that celebrates the many contributions of American women to our nation.”
The museum has been discussed by Congress for years, since the idea was first introduced by Collins, Feinstein and Mikulski. In 2014, Congress created a commission to study the potential for such a museum, and the commission eventually recommended one that would collect, study and create programs on a wide spectrum of American women’s experiences, contributions and history.
The Smithsonian, run by the federal government, is considered the world's largest museum complex. Most of it is on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and it comprises 19 museums, the National Zoo and nine research centers around the world. Once Congress approves a new Smithsonian museum, it can take a decade or more to get it built.
The newest one, the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture, opened in 2016, 13 years after Congress passed the legislation to create it. The late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., first introduced legislation for an African American museum within the Smithsonian system in the late 1980s, NPR reported.
The Senate bill has 12 cosponsors aside from Collins and Feinstein, and only one, Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is male. Of the 100 senators, before the election earlier this month, 26 were women, a number that could change slightly once the Georgia runoff election is held in January, and President-elect Joe Biden appoints cabinet positions.
The bill is supported by the American Historical Association, the National Coalition for History, the Women’s Business Development Center, Women in Aerospace, the National Foundation for Women Legislators, Women in Defense, the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission and other organizations.
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