BILL NUMBER: SJR 1INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Senator Liu MARCH 1, 2011 Relative to the federal Morrill Act. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SJR 1, as introduced, Liu. Postsecondary education: the Morrill Act. This measure would congratulate the President of the United States and the Congress on their foresight in enacting the Morrill Act which allowed for the establishment of land grant colleges in the United States. Fiscal committee: no. WHEREAS, In 1862, the United States was engaged in a Civil War which divided the nation and depleted its treasury; and WHEREAS, The Congress of the United States sought to energize the vital intellectual resources of the nation by making higher education accessible to the public, and thereby apply that intellectual capacity to stimulate the national economy which, at the time, was based in agriculture and mechanical arts; and WHEREAS, President Abraham Lincoln supported, encouraged, and signed this legislation because it contained ideals that united the North and the South and was able to be executed through the allocation of land grants; and WHEREAS, This legislation, known as the Morrill Act, manifested itself in California with the establishment of the University of California; and WHEREAS, The impact of the University of California, and its sister public institutions, the California State Universities and the California Community Colleges, have educated millions of Californians, strengthened not only the state's agriculture industry as premised by the Morrill Act, but continued to assist the state's economy in each successive wave of innovation, including the industrial age and the information age; and WHEREAS, The people of California have experienced a profound benefit from the Morrill Act; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature respectfully congratulates the President of the United States and the Congress on their foresight in passing the Morrill Act and memorializes them to renew their commitment to accessible higher education and the support of research in the interest of the nation; and be it further Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority leader of the Senate, to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States, and to the author for appropriate distribution.