Sponsor
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Representative · D-DC
Representative · D-DC
The bill protects and better interprets Civil War defenses—delivering education, coordinated conservation, recreation, and local tourism benefits—while imposing modest to meaningful federal and local costs and creating potential pressures and oversight impacts for private landowners and local jurisdictions.
Visitors, students, and local communities will gain formally preserved and interpreted Civil War sites when the area is designated a National Historical Park, improving public education, exhibits, and coordinated programming about the Civil War defenses of Washington.
Local governments, nonprofits, property owners, and the Park Service will have more practical preservation tools (cooperative agreements, technical assistance, ability to accept gifts/donations, and authority to buy willing properties), enabling site protection while often avoiding compulsory takings.
Federally coordinated conservation and stewardship across fortifications and affiliated sites will improve maintenance, consistent preservation standards, and visitor access at multiple historic locations.
Taxpayers and the federal budget may face increased costs for creating, administering, maintaining, and possibly buying properties for the new park and associated exhibits or facilities.
Private property owners (homeowners and other landowners) near identified sites may face limits on land use, increased oversight or publicity, and pressure to negotiate cooperative agreements or sell when federal funding is available.
Local governments and communities could encounter new management requirements, restrictions, or administrative obligations when they enter cooperative agreements or affiliate sites with the Park, reducing some local control and imposing operational duties.
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Redesignates and expands the Civil War Defenses of Washington as a National Historical Park, adds listed forts and affiliated areas, and allows cooperative affiliation or voluntary purchase of associated sites.
Official title: To designate the Civil War Defenses of Washington National Historical Park comprised of certain National Park System lands, and by affiliation and cooperative agreements other historically significant resources, located in the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland, that were part of the Civil War defenses of Washington and related to the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864, to study ways in which the Civil War history of both the North and South can be assembled, arrayed, and conveyed for the benefit of the public, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 6, 2026 by Eleanor Holmes Norton · Last progress July 6, 2026
Creates the Civil War Defenses of Washington National Historical Park by redesignating and expanding the federal park area to include specified National Park Service‑administered forts, affiliated sites, and to allow cooperative affiliations with locally or privately owned sites in Washington, northern Virginia, and Montgomery County, Maryland. Gives the Secretary of the Interior authority to affiliate sites by cooperative agreement, accept donations, purchase property from willing sellers (but not by condemnation), study options for interpretation and display, and administer and interpret the newly designated park. Requires the Secretary to prepare a report with recommendations on cost‑effective ways to assemble, display, and interpret Civil War history (including both Northern and Southern perspectives and the Shenandoah Valley campaign) within one year, and to consult with state and local officials, owners, and the public before entering cooperative agreements or adding non‑Federal sites by agreement.