WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Jim Banks (R-Ind.) sent a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Acting National Park Service Director Jessica Bowron, urging full compliance with President Trump’s Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History executive order. The order directs federal agencies to ensure that national landmarks and monuments reflect an accurate, unifying account of America’s founding and progress.
In part, the letter reads:
“As President Trump’s executive order Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History makes clear, it is the policy of the federal government “to restore Federal sites dedicated to history…to solemn and
uplifting public monuments that remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress
toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and
human flourishing.”
Jeffery Anderson, President of the American Main Street Initiative: “Senator Banks’s letter is a very welcome development in calling the NPS to account and asking whether it intends to proceed with this divisive effort at the Jefferson Memorial or restore the museum to its former glory.”
Read more about the letter here.
Click here to see the full letter or see text below:
Dear Secretary Burgum and Acting Director Bowron:
I ask you to confirm that the National Park Service (NPS) is complying with President Trump’s
instruction to avoid “ideological indoctrination or divisive narratives” in America’s parks and monuments. Multiple NPS projects appear to violate this order and disparage our nation’s heroes.
As President Trump’s executive order Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History makes clear, it is the policy of the federal government “to restore Federal sites dedicated to history…to solemn and
uplifting public monuments that remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress
toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and
human flourishing.”
To achieve these objectives, the President’s executive order directs the Department of the Interior to
ensure that public monuments and memorials do not advance “improper partisan ideology,” do not
“perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history,” and do not “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living.” The President’s executive order rightfully opposes a decades-long effort by our institutions to usurp American history with an ideology-based narrative that casts America’s founding and history in a negative light.
Despite these clear instructions, NPS is apparently moving forward with projects to inject left-wing
ideology onto the National Mall, undermining the President’s executive order. The Trust for the National Mall, NPS’s philanthropic partner, announced in 2017 that it would undertake renovations that “scrutinized and challenged” the “physical symbols of American history and democracy.” NPS is now transforming the historical museum at the Jefferson Memorial to make it more “inclusive.”
Beyond the National Mall, NPS projects around the nation further appear to advance progressive
ideology. NPS received a five-year, $1.3 million grant last year from the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project, which aims to “transform the nation’s commemorative landscape” to “foster more complete and inclusive storytelling.” NPS has also funded efforts to support DEI and LGBTQ activism—including a grant to the State Historical Society of Colorado to survey properties associated with gay and transgender history. And NPS is allegedly attempting to sanitize language across national parks and monuments, including by replacing “slaves” and “slaveholders” with the politically correct “enslaved persons” and “enslavers.”
NPS should celebrate America, not rewrite history for a political agenda. To better understand NPS’s
direction, I respectfully request that NPS answer the following questions:
1) What changes has NPS made to planned renovations, including at the Jefferson Memorial, or new
projects based on President Trump’s executive order?
2) Is NPS continuing to “scrutinize” and “challenge” the “physical symbols of American history and
democracy”? Please list all completed and future projects planned under NPS’s 2017
announcement, and whether those projects will be changed in the light of President Trump’s
executive order.
3) What other renovations does NPS have planned on the National Mall, and what is the nature of
those renovations?
4) Has NPS replaced any terms, including “slaves” and “slaveholders,” at NPS sites? If so, please
list the sites where terms have been replaced.
5) What steps has NPS taken to ensure that it is not funding projects at odds with President Trump’s
executive order, and that, despite the Monuments Project’s ideological aims, the grant to NPS is
not used to violate President Trump’s directives?
If you have any questions about this request, please do not hesitate to contact my office.
Sincerely,
Jim Banks
U.S. Senator for Indiana