Mitch Landrieu: “today I rise, along with Senators Lincoln, Breaux, and Carnahan, to introduce a bill to establish a National Commission…”

“today I rise, along with Senators Lincoln, Breaux, and Carnahan, to introduce a bill to establish a National Commission on the Bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase. This legislation has particularly special meaning to Senators from Louisiana because the site of the actual transfer of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the Cabildo, is a building still located in Jackson Square in New Orleans. The bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase, which occurs in 2003, marks an event that more than any other, determined the character of our national life--determined that we should be a great expanding nation instead of a relatively small and stationary one. For only $15 million, three cents an acre, a remarkable bargain, all or part of 14 states were created out of vast territory acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, virtually doubling the size of the United States. The largest peaceful land transaction in history, the Purchase opened the heartland of North America for exploration, settlement and achievement to the people of the United States and immigrant from around the world.”