©2025 League of Conservation Voters
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) sponsored H.R. 3005, a bill to remove all statues of individuals who voluntarily served in the Confederacy from the U.S. Capitol building, as well as those of John C. Calhoun, Charles B. Aycock, and John C. Clarke, who defended slavery, segregation, and white supremacy. This bill would also replace the bust of Roger Brooke Taney—the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who wrote the majority opinion in the notorious Dred Scott ruling of 1857, which defended both slavery and white supremacy—with a bust of Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court’s first Black justice and a champion for justice and equality. This is a small but important step in helping to ameliorate the pain that racism has caused Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other people of color over centuries by removing celebrations of our nation’s history of oppression from public spaces—especially in the U.S. Capitol, a building that belongs to the people. On June 29, the House approved H.R. 3005 by a vote of 285-120 (House roll call vote 196) YES IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE.The Senate took no action on this legislation in 2021.
©2025 League of Conservation Voters