Hundreds Rally at US Capitol Against Bill to Loosen Historic Site Reviews
About 800 people gathered on the West Lawn of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on 9 November 2026 to protest a bill that would change how the federal government protects historic and sacred sites. The figure is the organisers' own estimate.
The target was the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, known as BAAJA and listed as Senate Bill S.5653. Its most disputed part concerns Section 106, Title III of the National Historic Preservation Act, the law that asks federal agencies to look at how their projects could harm historic places. Under the current rules, agencies must notify and consult the public and tribal nations before doing so. The Art Newspaper reported that the bill would remove that requirement.
Under the bill as protesters described it, consulting tribal nations would become optional. The bill would also narrow which activities trigger federal historic review, and it would tighten the definition of what counts as a historic site. Effects that are sensory, indirect or cumulative, such as noise, changes to views, or harm that builds up over time, would no longer be considered for historic and sacred sites.
Representatives from more than 100 tribal nations attended. Members of Congress and leaders from the Association of African American Museums, the DC Preservation League, the American Institute of Architects and the Archaeological Institute of America also took part.
The event ran for more than two hours and featured more than 15 speakers. Greg Werkheiser, a leader of the Section 106 Coalition and co-founder of Cultural Heritage Partners, opened the rally.
California Representative Jared Huffman told the crowd that 500 new pages of BAAJA text had been released 48 hours before a Senate vote scheduled for the evening of 9 November. New Mexico Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury called the bill a "dirty deal."
Why does a review step matter to people far from Washington? Section 106 is the point where communities, including tribal nations, can raise concerns before a federal project goes ahead near an old burial ground, a village site or a historic building. Remove the step, and those concerns may arrive too late, or not at all.
The crowd was a mix of tribal representatives, lawmakers, architects, museum workers and preservationists. Many of them had come to the same lawn to make the same point, with the Senate vote still ahead of them that evening.
