Bipartisan bill would block Kennedy Center demolition
House and Senate Interior appropriators introduced the Protecting Presidential Memorials Act to require an act of Congress before demolishing the Kennedy Center or other presidential memorials. Sen. Mike Lee blocked an earlier unanimous-consent try. The bill is process, not yet law.
Bipartisan appropriators moved to fence off the Kennedy Center from unilateral demolition. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), ranking members of the House and Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations subcommittees, unveiled the Protecting Presidential Memorials Act, Pingree’s office said. The one-page bill would bar demolition of any congressionally designated presidential memorial — including the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Memorial, and Jefferson Memorial — unless Congress authorizes it.
Merkley and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) co-led the Senate measure. Merkley tried to pass it by unanimous consent Monday night; Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) blocked that effort, as Washington Post coverage of the prior week noted. Sponsors say President Donald Trump threatened to “rip down” the living memorial to John F. Kennedy unless his name is added to the building. Pingree previously stripped appropriations language that would have renamed the Opera House for Melania Trump. Reuters tracked the bicameral push as a process introduction, not floor passage.
For arts patrons and D.C. workers around the Potomac campus, the stake is whether a presidential memorial can be erased by executive fiat. Supporters call the bill a basic safeguard of congressional designation; critics of the measure argue presidents need flexibility over federal facilities. Watch whether the text attaches to year-end Interior funding and whether Lee maintains his hold.
Congress created the National Cultural Center in 1958, renamed it for Kennedy after his assassination, and opened it in 1971 as a living memorial tied to public arts access. Pingree argues that if Congress made the designation, only Congress should authorize demolition. The overnight card is a process watch: introduction and a blocked UC attempt, not a signed statute.
What we know:
Bipartisan Protecting Presidential Memorials Act introduced; Lee blocked UC passage; bill would require Congress before demolishing designated presidential memorials.
What we don’t:
Whether the bill reaches a floor vote, survives as a rider, or changes any ongoing facilities plans at the Kennedy Center.
Where outlets agree Reuters, The Washington Post, and the Washington Examiner agree Sen. Mike Lee blocked a bipartisan Senate effort to stop demolition of the Kennedy Center and other presidential memorials.
Where they differ Sponsors cast the bill as protecting memorials from executive whims; opponents of limits argue presidential facilities authority should not need a new statute.