Jim Matheson: “I rise today to give support to H.R. 3928, a bill that would provide the Natural History Museum at the University of…”

“I rise today to give support to H.R. 3928, a bill that would provide the Natural History Museum at the University of Utah with the means to restore, protect, and preserve our shared natural heritage. In 1824, a philanthropist named James Smithson bequeathed his fortune to the government of the United States in order to found an institution to ``increase the diffusion of knowledge among men.'' In 1846 the United States established the Smithsonian Institution and established the wise and remarkable precedent of the value of public investment in institutions of science, research, and heritage. Mr. Speaker, in Utah we have an institution that houses 1 billion years of the history of life on our planet. It is an institution that holds three-quarters of a million artifacts detailing tens of thousands of years of Native American life throughout the Rocky Mountain and Great Basin areas of our country. It contains over 30,000 specimens of mammals, one of the 30 largest collections in the western hemisphere, and its 18,000 specimen reptile collection contains one of the largest turtle assemblages in the world. It is an institution that houses one of the world's great paleontology collections. Its 12,000 specimen vertebrate fossil collection is dominated by 150 million-year-old dinosaurs from the Jurassic period, as well as Ice Age mammals such as giant bears, mammoths, and mastodons.”