Norman D. Dicks: “I have to rise in very strong opposition to this. The Smithsonian Institute is one of the most popular agencies of…”

“I have to rise in very strong opposition to this. The Smithsonian Institute is one of the most popular agencies of government in the United States. Here we are, coming up on the summer season and at a time when people are going to come in and visit the Smithsonian, and I just wonder, this is cutting construction but construction goes across the board and affects every one of these. Do we really want to cut out money for the Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture; the Archives of American Art; the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Freer Gallery of Art; the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage; the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden; the National Air and Space Museum; the National Museum of African American History and Culture; the National Museum of African Art; the Smithsonian American Art Museum; the National Museum of American History; the National Museum of the American Indian; the National Museum of Natural History; the National Portrait Gallery; the National Zoological Park; the Astrophysical Observatory; the Center for Materials Research and Education? I mean, the Smithsonian is important. This is a bad amendment. Let us defeat it and let us send the young man home this evening with his tail between his legs.”