December 21, 2011

By Pete Kasperowicz

THE HILL, 18 December 2011—House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has introduced a resolution calling for a bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to be placed in the U.S. Capitol, and the House is expected to approve the resolution on Monday.

If passed, the resolution would once again return Churchill to a prime spot in the nation’s capitol. President Obama in 2009 famously returned a bust of Churchill that was in the White House back to Britain, sparking complaints that Obama seemed to be diminishing the primacy of the U.S.-British relationship.

Boehner’s resolution notes that Dec. 26 is the 70th anniversary of Churchill’s joint speech to Congress, and that Churchill was made an honorary citizen of the United States in 1963 and given the Congressional Gold Medal in 1969.

“[T]he United Kingdom remains and will forever be an important and irreplaceable ally to the United States,” the resolution reads.

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The resolution, H.Res. 497, will be considered under a suspension of House rules, requiring a two-thirds majority vote.

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