S-4205-119
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Sponsored by John Cornyn (R-TX)
What it does
This bill would abolish the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in California, which was established by presidential proclamation in 2012. It would bar the Interior Department from using any unspent funds previously allocated to the monument for its operation or maintenance, and would instead transfer those funds to the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 program, which funds forensic DNA testing for criminal cases.
Who benefits
The forensic DNA testing program and law enforcement agencies that rely on it to process backlogged criminal evidence would receive redirected funding. Advocates who object to the monument's designation or its historical framing would see their preferred outcome enacted.
Who is hurt
Visitors, historians, and communities connected to Cesar Chavez's legacy and the United Farm Workers movement would lose the federally protected site and its interpretive and educational programs. National Park Service staff assigned to the monument would lose their positions or be reassigned, and Latino and labor advocacy groups who supported the original designation would lose a symbolic recognition of farmworker history.
Supporters argue
Supporters argue that the monument site, associated with a 1973 labor strike, includes locations they characterize as connected to past unlawful activity and that federal funds should not be used to commemorate them. They contend that redirecting unspent funds to eliminate the DNA testing backlog serves a more pressing public safety purpose than maintaining a monument designation.
Opponents argue
Opponents argue that the monument was created through a lawful process to honor a nationally significant labor and civil rights leader, and that abolishing it erases recognized history tied to the farmworker movement. They contend that revoking or downsizing a national monument by statute sets a precedent that could destabilize protections for other historic and environmental sites nationwide.
Constitutional context
The monument was created under the Antiquities Act (54 U.S.C. 320301), which authorizes presidential proclamations to designate federal land as national monuments; Congress retains Article IV, Section 3 power over federal property and may abolish or modify such designations by statute, as it has full authority over public lands. Whether a president alone can revoke a monument is unsettled, but here Congress itself is acting through legislation, which raises fewer separation-of-powers concerns than unilateral executive revocation.
Checks and balances
Congress would exercise its Article IV property power to override a prior executive designation made under the Antiquities Act, with no judicial or executive check required since Congress has plenary authority over federal lands.
Historical precedent
Congress has previously modified or abolished national monuments by statute in limited instances, though full monument abolishment via legislation (as opposed to boundary reduction, as occurred with Bears Ears in 2017) remains rare.