Elijah Cummings: “Mr. Speaker, two resolutions previously passed by the House commemorated the life and achievements of James Madison, one…”

“Mr. Speaker, two resolutions previously passed by the House commemorated the life and achievements of James Madison, one of our Nation's Founding Fathers. The act before us today, S. 3137, provides for a bipartisan and balanced selection of individuals to a commission that will direct the Government Printing Office to compile and publish a book containing important writings of James Madison. In addition, S. 3137 establishes an advisory committee to work with the commission to identify writings to include in a book on James Madison. The advisory committee is also tasked with compiling a list of events celebrating the birth and life of James Madison. The commission will consider the list in recognizing such events as official commission events. In 1776, Madison was a member of the Virginia Constitutional Committee, the body that drafted Virginia's first constitution and a bill of rights which later would welcome a model for the Bill of Rights amending the United States Constitution. When Madison was elected to the United States House of Representatives, he became the primary author of the first 12 proposed amendments to the Constitution. Ten of these, the Bill of Rights, were adopted. At the Constitutional Convention, which opened on May 25th, 1787, Madison set the tone by introducing a document he authored, called The Virginia Plan.”