Two House Republicans Ask Smithsonian How It Reviews Exhibits
Two Republican members of the US House of Representatives want to know how the Smithsonian Institution, the network of museums and research centres based in Washington, decides what goes on display.
Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Brian Jack of Georgia wrote to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III in a letter dated October 28, 2026. The letter asks for information on how the institution reviews proposed exhibits. Burchett chairs the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, a panel that oversees how federal agencies operate.
The subcommittee says it is concerned that the Smithsonian does not properly review exhibits before they open. Burchett and Jack say lawmakers asked for details of the content review process at a July hearing. The institution did not provide them, according to the letter.
That hearing took place on July 21, 2026, with Anthea Hartig, director of the National Museum of American History. At the session, Burchett asked her: "Dr. Hartig, are you America first? Do you love America?"
The letter singles out one display: "Patterns of Life," part of an exhibition called Making Home, held at the Cooper Hewitt design museum in New York. The Smithsonian Design Triennial, a show held every three years, was the setting for Making Home. The exhibition's installations opened in November 2024, and "Patterns of Life" was one of 25 projects commissioned for it.
The work was created by data journalist Mona Chalabi and the visual investigation practice SITU Research. It looks at homes destroyed by airstrikes in which US-made weapons were used, in Iraq in 2015, Syria in 2016 and Gaza in 2023. It tells the stories of three people whose homes were lost, and it uses the term "domicide," meaning the widespread and systematic destruction of housing through war, urban development or social upheaval.
The Smithsonian's own inspector general, an internal watchdog that audits the institution, released a report in June 2026 reviewing the Cooper Hewitt exhibition. Separately, Reuters reported in September that the Trump administration had threatened to cut federal agencies' support for the Smithsonian.
What happens next is not yet clear. The letter asks for information, and the Smithsonian's answer, if one is given, has not yet been reported. For visitors, the question is how exhibitions get checked before they reach the public. For the museums, it is a question of who signs off on what goes on the walls, and how long that process takes.
Those answers will decide how the Smithsonian handles future shows, and whether the next Design Triennial looks any different from the last.
