LEGISLATIVE BRANCH 45

conservation of murals and decorative complex; renovation, restoration, and paintings in the Capitol; completion of modification of the interiors and the murals in the first-floor House exteriors of the Thomas Jefferson and corridors; improvement of speech- John Adams Buildings of the Library of reinforcement, electrical, and fire- Congress and provision of off-site book protection systems in the Capitol and storage facilities for the Library; and congressional office buildings; work on management oversight of the Thurgood security improvements within the Capitol Marshall Federal Judiciary Building.

For further information, contact the Office of the , U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, DC 20515. Phone, 202–228–1793. Internet, www.aoc.gov.

UNITED STATES BOTANIC GARDEN Office of Executive Director, 245 First Street SW., Washington, DC 20024 Phone, 202–226–8333. Internet, www.usbg.gov. Conservatory, 100 Maryland Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20024 Phone, 202–225–6670 Production Facility, 4700 Shepherd Parkway SW., Washington, DC 20032 Phone, 202–226–4780

Director (Architect of the Capitol) ALAN M. HANTMAN Executive Director HOLLY H. SHIMIZU

The United States Botanic Garden informs visitors about the aesthetic, cultural, economic, therapeutic, and ecological importance of plants to the well-being of humankind.

The U.S. Botanic Garden has artistic an administration building, and an off- displays of plants, exhibits, and site production facility. The educational programs promoting Conservatory, one of the largest botanical knowledge through the structures of its kind in this country, re- cultivation of an ordered collection of opened on December 11, 2001, after plants; fostering plant conservation by undergoing major renovation that acting as a repository for endangered required more than 4 years to complete. species; and growing plants for the In addition to upgraded amenities for beautification of the Capitol complex. visitors, it features 12 exhibit and plant Uniquely situated at the heart of the U.S. display areas. A new facility, the Government, the Garden seeks to National Garden, is currently under promote the exchange of ideas and construction on a three-acre site just information relevant to its mission west of the Conservatory. among national and international visitors and policymakers. Outdoor plantings are showcased in The Garden’s collections include Bartholdi Park, a home landscape orchids, epiphytes, bromeliads, demonstration area located across from carnivorous plants, ferns, cycads, cacti, the Conservatory. Each of the displays is succulents, medicinal plants, rare and sized and scaled for suitability in an endangered plants, and plants valued as urban or suburban setting. The gardens sources of food, beverages, fibers, display ornamental plants that perform cosmetics, and industrial products. well in this region arrayed in a variety of The U.S. Botanic Garden’s facilities styles and themes. Also located in this include the Conservatory, Bartholdi Park, park is , created by

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Fre´de´ric Auguste Bartholdi (1834–1904), for publication of the results of the sculptor of the . Expedition. Expansion of the Patent The Garden’s staff is organized into Office in 1849 necessitated finding a horticulture, operations, administration, new location for the botanical and public programs divisions. Programs collections. for the public are listed in a quarterly The act of May 15, 1850 (9 Stat. 427), calendar of events and also on the provided for the relocation of the Garden’s Web site. A horticultural Botanic Garden under the direction of hotline is available to answer questions the Joint Committee on the Library. The from the public. site selected was on the National Mall at The U.S. Botanic Garden was founded the west end of the Capitol Grounds, in 1820 under the auspices of the practically the same site the Garden Columbian Institute for the Promotion of occupied during the period it functioned Arts and Sciences, an organization that under the Columbian Institute. This site was the outgrowth of an association was later enlarged, and the main area known as the Metropolitan Society, continued to serve as the principal which received its charter from Congress Garden site from 1850 to 1933, when on April 20, 1818. The Garden the Garden was relocated to its present continued under the direction of the site. Institute until 1837, when the Institute ceased to exist as an active organization. Although the Government had In June 1842, the U.S. Exploring assumed responsibility for the Expedition under the command of maintenance and stewardship of the Captain Charles Wilkes returned from its plant collection in 1842, the two 4-year voyage with a wealth of functions were divided between the information, artifacts, pressed-plant Commissioner of Public Buildings and specimens, and living plants from the Joint Committee on the Library, around the world. The living plants were respectively. In 1856, in recognition of temporarily placed on exhibit on a lot their increasing stature, the collections behind the old Patent Office under the and their associated operations and care of William D. Brackenridge, the facilities were officially named the Expedition’s botanist. By November United States Botanic Garden, and the 1842, the plants were moved into a Joint Committee on the Library assumed greenhouse built there with funds jurisdiction over both its direction and appropriated by Congress. Subsequently, maintenance (11 Stat. 104). An annual the greenhouse was expanded with two appropriation has been provided by additions and a small growing area to Congress since 1856. care for the burgeoning collection. In Presently, the Joint Committee on the 1843, stewardship of the collection was Library exercises its supervision through placed under the direction and control the Architect of the Capitol, who has of the Joint Committee on the Library, held the title of Acting Director since which had also assumed responsibility 1934.

For further information concerning the United States Botanic Garden, contact the Public Programs Division, 245 First Street SW., Washington, DC 20024. Phone, 202–225–8333. Plant Hotline, 202–226– 4785. Internet, www.usbg.gov. E-mail, [email protected].

GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G Street NW., Washington, DC 20548 Phone, 202–512–3000. Internet, www.gao.gov.

Comptroller General of the United States DAVID M. WALKER

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