"I want to congratulate Ann Meredith, who organized a coalition of businesses, residents and concerned citizens around Independence Park security concerns, for spearheading the bipartisan effort that has won this significant victory for all Philadelphians and for our nation's icons of Independence.

"As I communicated to Senator Specter in July, barricading Independence Hall behind an unsightly fence sends the wrong message about our free and open society. We advocated taking the matter to the incoming director of the National Park Service to devise a better way to safeguard our national treasures in Philadelphia.

"I congratulate Mary A. Bomar, sworn in this week as the NPS director. And I applaud Director Bomar for calling on her prior experience as superintendent of Independence National Historical Park and heeding the call of the Philadelphia community so ably mobilized by Ann Meredith."