Sponsors (10)
The bill provides a low-cost symbolic boost to public interest in paleontology and education while consuming legislative attention for a purely ceremonial statutory designation with no material policy or budgetary effect.
Students, museums, and the general public gain a symbolic national designation recognizing the American mastodon and Tyrannosaurus rex as national fossils, likely increasing public interest and educational engagement with natural history and paleontology.
Congress and taxpayers receive no substantive policy or budgetary benefit—this ceremonial designation merely adds statutory text and uses legislative time and resources that could be spent on more substantive matters.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds legal designations naming the American mastodon as the national fossil mammal and Tyrannosaurus rex as the national fossil dinosaur in Title 36.
Official title: To amend chapter 3 of title 36, United States Code, to designate the American mastodon as the national fossil mammal and the Tyrannosaurus rex as the national fossil dinosaur of the United States, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 8, 2026 by Erin Houchin · Last progress September 17, 2026
Designates the American mastodon (Mammut americanum) as the national fossil mammal and Tyrannosaurus rex as the national fossil dinosaur and adds those designations to Chapter 3 of Title 36, United States Code. Makes conforming edits to the chapter heading and table of sections to reflect the new additions. The change is symbolic: it updates the United States Code to recognize two fossil species as national emblems. It does not create federal programs, allocate funding, or change regulatory authorities.