[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 189 (Thursday, December 19, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7192-S7193]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   AMERICA'S NATIONAL CHURCHILL MUSEUM NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK ACT

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    FORT ONTARIO HOLOCAUST REFUGEE SHELTER NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK 
                           ESTABLISHMENT ACT

  Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, on March 5, 1946, President Harry S. 
Truman of Missouri invited a former Prime Minister of the United 
Kingdom, Winston Churchill, to Fulton, MO, Westminster College, to 
deliver a speech.
  The two men actually traveled to the speech together over land by 
train, and it was really a remarkable occasion. By this time, of 
course, Churchill was in retirement--or a brief retirement; he was to 
return to public office some short time thereafter. And Churchill might 
have chosen, at that speech in Fulton at Westminster College, to talk 
about any number of things. He might have talked about his legacy, as 
many people do in Washington, DC, these days. He might have told 
stories about the recently won Second World War. But, instead, he gave 
one of the most significant speeches of the 20th century, a speech that 
defined with moral clarity unparalleled the challenges of the second 
half of the 20th century. He called it the ``Sinews of Peace'' speech, 
but it came to be known ever after as ``The Iron Curtain'' speech.
  It was in Fulton, MO, that Churchill so famously said that an iron 
curtain has descended across the European continent, and he went on to 
say that the struggle against Soviet communism would be the great moral 
challenge--and, of course, the national security challenge--the great 
cause of free peoples everywhere in the second half of the 20th 
century.
  He was absolutely correct. And that speech set the tone; it set the 
agenda; it set the moral framework for the decades that followed, 
culminating, of course, with President Reagan's own victory over Soviet 
communism in which he led this country to triumph and the fall of the 
Berlin Wall, which would come over four decades after Churchill visited 
Fulton.
  Now, interestingly, when Churchill came to Fulton that day and to 
Westminster College, they didn't have a space big enough for him, other 
than the Westminster College gymnasium. So Churchill gave his speech in 
the gym there at Westminster College.
  In the years that followed, as the speech became progressively more 
famous, as Churchill's prophetic insight became more and more 
recognized, the residents of Fulton decided that it would be fitting to 
create a memorial there on the college campus at Westminster College to 
commemorate that speech. And so they settled upon something 
interesting. In 1966, 20 years after the speech had first been 
delivered, the residents of Fulton transported from London the bricks 
of a church, a parish church in London called St. Mary Aldermanbury 
that had been destroyed in the Blitz of 1940 when Churchill was Prime 
Minister, when England stood alone against the Nazi scourge. The 
residents of Fulton transported those bricks from that church that had 
been destroyed to Fulton, MO, to the Westminster campus, and they 
rebuilt the church right there on the campus of Westminster.
  Here it is now, as it stands today. And there is a statue of 
Churchill right next to it.
  The thing about this church is it was first built in the 11th 
century. The first mention we have of it is in 1181 when it was a 
parish church in the city of London. It was actually destroyed once 
before in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and then it was rebuilt by 
Sir Christopher Wren before it was gutted again by the Blitz in 1940.
  So here it stands today in Fulton, MO, on the campus of Westminster 
College, a monument to Winston Churchill, yes, but also a monument to 
the great bonds between the United States and the United Kingdom, to 
our shared struggle to free the world of tyranny in the 20th century 
and to our shared victories together across that great century.
  And today, Mr. President, I am here on this floor to ask consent to 
pass legislation to designate this memorial as a national historic 
landmark to make sure that, from now on, the America's National 
Churchill Museum, as it is called in Fulton, will stand recognized by 
this country as a national historic landmark and that the National Park 
Service will continue to help maintain it and to study future potential 
designations for the site.
  So we are going to pause, I understand, for one moment, and then I 
will ask permission to pass the bill.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, during World War II, Fort Ontario was 
the only U.S. refugee shelter for people fleeing the Holocaust. Let me 
say it again. Fort Ontario was the only U.S. refugee shelter for people 
fleeing the Holocaust. It gave them a safe haven. It gave them 
strength. It gave them hope that when they needed it the very most, we 
were there. And it was one of the first places where American residents 
would ever hear firsthand accounts about what happened during the 
Holocaust.
  In fact, there are still residents in this and other communities 
today who remember the experiences of living in or outside of Fort 
Ontario at a time when nearly 1,000 Holocaust refugees were living 
there and receiving medical care, food, and education.
  Located along Lake Ontario in Oswego, NY, the Fort Ontario Holocaust 
Refugee Center was supposed to be the first of many temporary relief 
camps across the United States during World War II, but it was the only 
one that came to fruition.
  For years, I have been working with the local community members to 
honor and preserve it. I have visited them. I have heard their stories. 
I have learned about the importance of the Fort Ontario Holocaust 
Refugee Shelter to them and their families and the larger community.
  This site has long played an extraordinary role in our Nation's 
history, and its story deserves to be part of the National Park System. 
Establishing the Fort Ontario Holocaust Refugee Shelter National 
Historic Park would give this site permanent protection, and it would 
help to make sure it is preserved and enshrined in the site's legacy of 
hope, compassion, and resilience for future generations.
  I want to thank Congresswoman Tenney and former Congressman Katko for 
helping lead this effort. And I also want to thank Senator Hawley for 
his partnership and the Senate for passing this bill.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Mr. President, notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask 
unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate 
consideration of the following bills en bloc: Calendar No. 630, S. 
4607; Calendar No. 589, S. 2742.
  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bills 
en bloc.
  Mrs. GILLIBRAND. I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported 
substitute amendments, where applicable, be agreed to; the bills, as 
amended, if amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and 
that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the 
table, all en bloc.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bills were passed en bloc as follows:

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