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Francis G. Newlands Memorial Removal Act
To direct the Secretary of the Interior to remove or permanently conceal the name of Francis Newlands on the grounds of the memorial fountain located at Chevy Chase Circle in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill directs the Secretary of the Interior to remove or permanently conceal the name of Francis G. Newlands from a memorial fountain located at Chevy Chase Circle in Washington, D.C. Specifically, the Secretary must remove a brass plaque bearing Newlands' name, remove a stone tablet bearing his name and an inscription from the fountain's south face, and remove or conceal his name from the fountain's coping stones. The bill requires the Secretary to offer the removed items to Newlands' descendants for a period of 60 days. If the descendants do not claim the items, they are to be maintained by the National Park Service as federal property and added to the Rock Creek Park museum collection.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
Actions (3)
- Dec 9, 2025 Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks. Hearings held. · senate
- Jul 22, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. · senate
- Jul 22, 2025 Introduced in Senate
More bills on these subjects (8)
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Similar bills (6)
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Committee action
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Meetings where this bill was on the agenda
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
July 22, 2025
Mr. Van Hollen introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of the Interior to remove or permanently conceal the name of Francis Newlands on the grounds of the memorial fountain located at Chevy Chase Circle in the District of Columbia, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Francis G. Newlands Memorial Removal Act”.
SEC. 2. REMOVAL OF PLAQUE AND CONCRETE FROM MEMORIAL FOUNTAIN GROUNDS.
(a) In General.—The Secretary of the Interior shall—
(1) remove the brass plaque bearing the name “Senator Francis G. Newlands” from the grounds of the memorial fountain;
(2) remove from the south end of the memorial fountain’s face, the stone, tablet-like projection bearing the name of “Francis Griffith Newlands” and a related inscription;
(3) remove or permanently conceal the name “Newlands” carved into the upper face of the memorial fountain’s coping stones; and
(4) offer the items removed pursuant to paragraphs (1),
(2), and (3) to the descendants of Francis Griffith Newlands for a period of 60 days, and if not claimed within that period, direct the items removed pursuant to paragraphs (1), (2), and
(3) to be maintained by the National Park Service as Federal property and accessioned into the Rock Creek Park museum collection.
(b) Memorial Fountain.—For the purposes of this section, the term “memorial fountain” means the memorial fountain located at Chevy Chase Circle, Connecticut Avenue and Western Avenue NW, in the District of Columbia. <all>
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