To direct the Joint Committee on the Library to replace the bust of Roger Brooke Taney in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the United States Capitol with a bust of Thurgood Marshall to be obtained by the Joint Committee on the Library and to remove certain statues from areas of the United States Capitol which are accessible to the public, to remove all statues of individuals who voluntarily served the Confederate States of America from display in the United States Capitol, and for other purposes.
Latest action. Received in the Senate.
This bill provides for the removal of certain statues and busts from display in the Capitol.
The bill directs the Joint Committee on the Library to remove the bust of Roger Brooke Taney in the Old Supreme Court chamber of the Capitol and replace it with a bust of Thurgood Marshall.
The committee must remove the statues of Charles Brantley Aycock, John Caldwell Calhoun, and James Paul Clarke and the bust of John Cabell Breckinridge from areas of the Capitol accessible to the public. The Architect of the Capitol (AOC) must store the statues and bust until it arranges their return to the states that provided them.
Additionally, the bill
prohibits the display of statues in National Statuary Hall of persons who served as officers or voluntarily with the Confederate States of America or of the military forces or government of a state while it was in rebellion against the United States;
requires the AOC to identify such statues and the committee to arrange for their transfer and deliverance from the Capitol to the Smithsonian Institution;
requires the Smithsonian to follow its preexisting policies and procedures regarding the storage and display of such transferred statues;
requires each statue to be returned to the providing state, including its ownership, if the state requests and agrees to pay any transportation-related costs; and
permits a state that has a statue removed to replace the statue.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Passed House" stage on July 22, 2020. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Received in the Senate.
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Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
The latest action on file does not map to a stage Civibrief recognizes, so the page will not name one. The record's own words are the reliable fact here.
The record's latest action, on July 23, 2020: Received in the Senate.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 116th Congress (2019-20), 344 of the 14,345 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 2.4 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one has no outstanding steps listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
STENY HOYER (D-MD) introduced it on July 13, 2020, and 16 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 16 Democrats.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on July 13, 2020, 2250 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 2240 days ago, on July 23, 2020.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 116th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2021 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseReceived in the Senate.
- SenateNot stated in the latest action
- PresidentNot stated in the latest action