S-2366 : Still Just a Bill

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 arrange for their transfer and delivery 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.