Providing for the concurrence by the House in the Senate amendment to H.R. 588, with an amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Utah and the gentleman from the Northern Mariana Islands for their management of this important legislation. I certainly want to pay a special tribute to my good friend, the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), for his authorship of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this resolution to amend the Senate amendment to H.R. 588, the Vietnam Veterans Donor Acknowledgement Act of 2013.

I want to thank my good friend again, Congressman Don Young from Alaska, for his leadership on this very important issue. He has always been a strong supporter of our military servicemembers and veterans and has been instrumental in moving forward to building the Education Center at the Wall that will educate the millions of visitors to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial about its history and purpose.

Mr. Speaker, last month the House, with overwhelming support, passed H.R. 588, the Vietnam Veterans Donor Acknowledgement Act of 2013. As we all know, H.R. 588 is supported by all the major veterans' organizations throughout the country. Unfortunately, during its consideration, the Senate significantly amended the bill, which has drastically altered the original intent of the bill. Much of the additions to H.R. 588 have not been evaluated or considered by way of markup, by either the Senate or the House, which is critical in considering any legislation. For this reason, my colleague today offers this resolution to reinstate the original bipartisan language.

Mr. Speaker, as a Vietnam veteran myself, I strongly believe that my fellow soldiers and I have waited long enough for the construction of this important educational center. It will benefit the many tourists that visit our Nation's capital and educate and inform many of those who question why the thousands of names are engraved on such an extraordinary memorial.

Mr. Speaker, it is so beautiful to see that our veterans coming from the Gulf War are being praised by the American public, which is great. Unfortunately, those of us who were part of the Vietnam legacy of the war that occurred at that time did not have a very sweet welcoming home I can say, Mr. Speaker, being called ``baby killers'' and ``warmongers'' and all of this. To this day I'm still very bitter in terms of the treatment of our soldiers and veterans who come from that terrible war that our country was involved in.

This education center is so critical to educate the American people-- to educate America for that matter--so that they will understand and better appreciate the sacrifices and the contributions that our veterans and those who wore the armed services uniform made in protection of this country.

Again, I thank my dear friend, Mr. Young from Alaska, and I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 264) providing for the concurrence by the House in the Senate amendment to H.R. 588, with an amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

There comes a point in time when we are always asking the Senate to do something, and when they finally get around to doing something, they decide to mess it up by making it questionable by trying to expand it. This is a similar case in which we gave them a simple and good bill. They have sent us back something that is questionable and expanded, and we are going to give it back to them so that they just do it right the second time around.

With that, I would like to yield such time as he may consume to the sponsor of the original bill, the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young).

At this time, I reserve the balance of my time as I will be the last speaker.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I appreciate the comments that were given by the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), the gentleman from the Northern Mariana Islands (Mr. Sablan), and I especially respect and appreciate the comments by the gentleman from American Samoa, who has done so much, and I appreciate all of those. In everything that we are doing, in fact, their comments were right on; that what we are trying to do is ensure that what we do here is to return to the cliche of the House, which is regular order, which means we go through a legitimate process of trying to look at something instead of just flying by the seat of our pants.

Therefore, because this was changed significantly in the Senate without much input at all, we are simply doing two things. First of all, we'll be removing the provisions effected by the Senate changes so that the Vietnam Visitors Center can move forward under this bill without any delay, and it will enhance the ability to raise their private funds, but also we want to give careful and due consideration to the Senate-added provisions.

So the text of the Senate language affecting future memorials is being introduced today as a standalone bill in the House. We will have a public hearing. We will go through the process, to be held very soon on this particular bill, and then further action by the committee will follow. Once again, this is our process to re-ensure regular order.

I urge my colleagues to vote for this particular resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, over a month ago, the House passed the Vietnam Veterans Donor Acknowledgment Act by a resounding vote of 398-2. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago, the Senate substantially changed this bipartisan and noncontroversial piece of legislation. Instead of only allowing donor recognition at a soon-to-be-built Vietnam Veterans Education Center, the Senate changed the bill to allow donor recognition, across the entire Mall, on all future commemorative works. While I am not fundamentally opposed to this idea, neither the House nor the Senate has done any hearings to consider the implications of this issue. In fact, neither the House nor the Senate has done a markup on this issue to allow Members to add their input.

Mr. Speaker, put simply, this is just a poor legislative process, and the American people deserve better.

Today, we are here to undo what the Senate has done and to, once again, send the Senate a bipartisan and noncontroversial bill. Today's resolution

merely strikes the Senate language that allows donor recognition across The Mall and reinserts my original language from H.R. 588. This language has been through the full committee process and is sound legislative text.

However, not all of the Senate additions are bad. In this bill, we will keep one portion of the Senate's language, which extends the legislative authority to construct the Vietnam Veterans Education Center from 2014 until 2018.

It is unfortunate that we must provide this extension, though. Our Nation's Vietnam veterans have waited too long for this education center. It is a shame that a long line of political gamesmanship has delayed its construction.

Mr. Speaker, after the Vietnam War, many of our Nation's bravest were welcomed home not with joyous cheers or words of thanks, but dirty looks and snide remarks.

Let us end these political games. I call upon my colleagues in the House, but especially on my colleagues in the Senate, to quickly pass this resolution so this education center can finally be built. I think we can all agree that this legislation and this center are a long time coming.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

This is a very important issue before us today. The Senate amended H.R. 588 to allow any new memorial in D.C. to acknowledge donors.

The original bill passed by the House only allowed donor acknowledgement for the Vietnam Memorial Visitor Center. The Senate amendment also provided a 4-year extension of the legislative authority for the Vietnam Memorial Visitors Center.

The resolution before us today would narrow the Senate language back to apply only to the Vietnam Memorial Visitor Center while continuing to provide the visitor center with a 4-year extension of their authorization.

Mr. Speaker, our preference would be to send a bill to the President to sign today; however, the majority is insisting on amending the Senate legislation and sending this bill back to the Senate instead of to the President. While we do not object to a policy of allowing donor acknowledgement, we are concerned that amending the Senate amendment will unnecessarily delay enactment of this legislation.

Given this is the only option we have to support the Vietnam Memorial Visitor Center, we support passage of this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield as much time as he may consume to a Vietnam War veteran, the distinguished gentleman from American Samoa (Mr. Faleomavaega).

(Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.