PUBLIC LAW 108–87—SEPT. 30, 2003
117 STAT. 1103
Closure and Realignment Act of 1990 (title XXIX of Public Law 101–510; 10 U.S.C. 2687 note). (c) OFFICE OF ECONOMIC ADJUSTMENT ACTIVITIES.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Office of Economic Adjustment of the Department of Defense may make grants and supplement other Federal funds using funds made available by this Act under the heading ‘‘Operation and Maintenance, Defense-Wide’’, and the projects so supported shall be considered to be authorized by law. SEC. 8133. Up to $2,000,000 of the funds appropriated by this Act under the heading, ‘‘Operation and Maintenance, Army’’, may be made available to contract for services required to solicit non-Federal donations to support construction and operation of the United States Army Museum at Fort Belvoir, Virginia: Provided, That notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Army is authorized to receive future payments in this or the subsequent fiscal year from any non-profit organization chartered to support the United States Army Museum to reimburse amounts expended by the Army pursuant to this section: Provided further, That any reimbursements received pursuant to this section shall be merged with ‘‘Operation and Maintenance, Army’’ and shall be made available for the same purposes and for the same time period as that appropriation account. SEC. 8134. DESIGNATION OF AMERICA’S NATIONAL WORLD WAR II MUSEUM. (a) FINDINGS.—Congress makes the following findings: (1) The National D-Day Museum, operated in New Orleans, Louisiana by an educational foundation, has been established with the vision ‘‘to celebrate the American Spirit’’. (2) The National D-Day Museum is the only museum in the United States that exists for the exclusive purpose of interpreting the American experience during the World War II years (1939–1945) on both the battlefront and the home front and, in doing so, covers all of the branches of the Armed Forces and the Merchant Marine. (3) The National D-Day Museum was founded by the preeminent American historian, Stephen E. Ambrose, as a result of a conversation with President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1963, when the President and former Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe, credited Andrew Jackson Higgins, the chief executive officer of Higgins Industries in New Orleans, as the ‘‘man who won the war for us’’ because the 12,000 landing craft designed by Higgins Industries made possible all of the amphibious invasions of World War II and carried American soldiers into every theatre of the war. (4) The National D-Day Museum, since its grand opening on June 6, 2000, the 56th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, has attracted nearly 1,000,000 visitors from around the world, 85 percent of whom have been Americans from across the country. (5) American World War II veterans, called the ‘‘greatest generation’’ of the Nation, are dying at the rapid rate of more than 1,200 veterans each day, creating an urgent need to preserve the stories, artifacts, and heroic achievements of that generation.
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