Mike Lee blocks bipartisan bill to protect Kennedy Center from demolition
Senator Mike Lee blocked a bipartisan bill that would have barred demolition of the Kennedy Center and other presidential memorials without an act of Congress.
A bipartisan bill to shield the Kennedy Center and other presidential memorials from demolition was blocked in the US Senate on Monday night, after Senator Mike Lee of Utah objected to it.
Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who sponsored the measure with Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, had asked the Senate to pass the one-page Protecting Presidential Memorials Act by unanimous consent. A single objection was enough to stop it.
The bill would have prohibited the demolition of any national memorial honouring a US president — explicitly naming the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial — without an act of Congress.
“First, he destroyed its programming, and now, he wants to destroy the building itself,” Merkley said, accusing President Donald Trump of trying to tear down the Kennedy Center “because the law says Trump can’t put his name on the building.” He called the president’s threats “straight out of the authoritarian playbook”.
Murkowski, a Republican, is the chair of the Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee and Merkley its ranking member; the subcommittee oversees funding for the Kennedy Center. The bill was also co-sponsored by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Chris Van Hollen and Jack Reed.
Sources
- Senate Blocks Merkley, Murkowski Bill to Prevent Trump Tearing Down Presidential Memorials — Senator Jeff Merkley press release
- Senate Blocks Merkley‑Murkowski Bill to Protect Presidential Memorials — Forth News
- Senate Objection Blocks Bill to Protect Kennedy Center From Demolition — Times Nigeria
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