Sheila Jackson Lee: “I rise with my appreciation to the managers of this bill and their staffs; but I also want to thank them for the very…”

“I rise with my appreciation to the managers of this bill and their staffs; but I also want to thank them for the very civil discussion that occurred earlier by two of my colleagues who offered amendments regarding the exhibition of Civil War artifacts, or the rebel flag, and I thank them for their courtesy in those amendments of those individuals. I also make a statement on the floor that I look forward to the opportunity given to us by the leadership of this House to have a full discussion on various entities that did not unify but divide, and I think a civil debate on this is warranted in this House as we watched the very moving and very honest debate that took place in South Carolina. My amendment, however, is one that, I hope, is embracing and is a show of unity about what America stands for, and that is the National Heritage Area-Corridor designation. I just want to show this map, and I am certainly quite pleased that a number of these National Heritage Areas do exist. There are 49 of them--none in the State of Texas, none but possibly one in Minnesota, maybe one between Arizona and California, but very few in the West, including in the State of Idaho, and I can name a number of other States. My amendment is to highlight the value of these national trails. This is particularly important because this tells the story of America. 16 U.S.…”