|Committee||Commerce, Science, and Transportation|
|Date||December 14, 2010 (111th Congress, 2nd Session)|
|Staff Contact||Andy Koenig|
The House is scheduled to consider S. 1405 under a suspension of the rules, requiring a two-thirds majority vote for passage, on Tuesday, December 14, 2010. S. 1405 was introduced on July 7, 2009, by Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and was approved in the Senate by unanimous consent on May 7, 2010. The bill was referred to the House Natural Resources Committee, which took no official action.
S. 1405 would rename the Longfellow National Historic Site in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as the “Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site.” Under the legislation, any reference in a law, map, regulation, document, paper, or other record of the United States to the Longfellow National Historic Site would be considered to be a reference to the “Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site.”
National Historic Sites are areas that have been deemed to be nationally and historically significant and are managed by the NPS to protect the significance of the location. Typically, a site is studied for a period of time by the NPS, which makes a determination as to whether the site should receive a designation and makes a recommendation to Congress. According to the National Park Service, the Longfellow National Historic Site preserves the home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of the world’s foremost 19th century poets. The house also served as headquarters for General George Washington during the Siege of Boston, from July 1775 to April 1776. In addition to its rich history, the site offers unique opportunities to explore the themes of 19th century literature and the arts.
According to CBO, S. 1405 “would have no significant effect on the federal budget.”