# Plain Language Summary: Capitol Statue Replacement Bill

This bill directs Congress to make changes to the statues and busts displayed in the U.S. Capitol building. Specifically, it requires replacing a bust of Roger Brooke Taney (a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) with a bust of Thurgood Marshall (a civil rights icon and former Supreme Court Justice) in the Old Supreme Court Chamber. The bill also requires removing all statues of people who voluntarily served the Confederate States of America from public areas of the Capitol building.

The main impact is symbolic rather than practical for everyday Americans. The Capitol building is a tourist destination and workplace for members of Congress and their staff, so these changes would be visible to visitors and people who work there. The bill essentially removes Confederate monuments from prominent display in the nation's legislative building and replaces them with figures who fought against slavery and for civil rights. Roger Brooke Taney is particularly significant because he was the Chief Justice who wrote the Dred Scott decision, which denied citizenship rights to enslaved and formerly enslaved people—one of the most controversial Supreme Court decisions in American history.

This is primarily a cultural and historical statement about which figures the government chooses to honor in its most important buildings. It doesn't create new laws, change regulations, or directly affect people's daily lives, but it does reflect a decision about how the country wants to represent its history and values in the physical space where laws are made.

A bill to direct the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library to replace the bust of Roger Brooke Taney in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the Capitol with a bust of Thurgood Marshall to be obtained by the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library and to remove certain statues from areas of the 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 Capitol, and for other purposes.

Cardin, Benjamin L.

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 <ul> <li> 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;</li> <li>requires the AOC to identify such statues and arrange for their transfer and delivery from the Capitol to the Smithsonian Institution;</li> <li> requires the Smithsonian to follow its preexisting policies and procedures regarding the storage and display of such transferred statues;</li> <li> 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</li> <li> permits a state that has a statue removed to replace the statue.</li> </ul>