House Democrats will bring up a measure Wednesday that would force the removal of all Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol along with a handful of additional figures considered racially insensitive, including former Vice President John C. Calhoun and Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney.
“We must make the clear and unequivocal statement that there is no room in this Capitol for those who have perpetrated hate and division in the United States of America,” Rep. G.K. Butterfield, a North Carolina Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill, said Wednesday.
The House will bring up the measure under special rules that limit debate, prohibit amendments, and require two-thirds support of the entire voting body to pass the bill, which will increase pressure on Republicans to vote for the measure.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on June 10, requested lawmakers in the House and Senate who oversee the Capitol statue collection to banish 11 Confederate figures on display in halls and corridors throughout the building. That list includes former Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and former Confederate President Jefferson Davis, among other figures.
Republicans on the statue oversight committee rejected the request and said the law requires the removal to be carried out by the states, who have each commissioned two statues to display in the Capitol. That process could take many years.
Pelosi and the Congressional Black Caucus say the statues need to be evicted from the building far more quickly. Calhoun, for example, was a white supremacist who advocated for the continuation of slavery.
The bill on the floor Wednesday would instruct Capitol Architect Brett Blanton “to remove certain statues from areas of the United States Capitol which are accessible to the public, to remove all statues of individuals who voluntarily served the Confederate States of America from display in the United States Capitol.”
[Read more: Public sides with Trump on removing Confederate statues: Poll]
The measure would also require the architect to banish the bust of Taney that sits outside the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the Capitol.
Taney authored the 1857 Dred Scott decision that deemed enslaved people were not U.S. citizens. The bill calls for Taney to be replaced with a bust of Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court justice.
The bill sets a four-month deadline for removal of the Confederates and 45 days for the removal of the Taney bust and the four additional statues.
The bill would allocate $5 million to the Smithsonian Institution and the Architect of the Capitol to remove and store the 16 statues and busts that will be eventually returned to the states.
