Sponsors
The bill enacts a symbolic street-renaming and ties federal highway funds to D.C. compliance—giving Congress enforceable leverage but risking large federal funding cuts, project delays and costs, administrative strain, and limits on local self-governance and expressive autonomy.
Residents and visitors in D.C. will see a street renamed to "Liberty Plaza," changing local signage and official references in the designated area.
Congress gains a clear enforcement lever by conditioning District federal highway funds on compliance, increasing federal ability to require local action tied to federal apportionments.
District residents and local governments could lose up to half of annual federal highway funds for the District, delaying road and transit projects financed from those funds.
Taxpayers and local jurisdictions may face slower or costlier transportation improvements if reduced federal funding forces project scope cuts or requires more local revenue.
Local self-governance and free-expression norms could be weakened because the bill imposes a federally mandated, content-based requirement on D.C.'s symbolic naming and official materials and uses funding leverage to enforce removal of a specific political phrase, setting a precedent for federal micromanagement.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Conditions half of DC’s annual federal highway apportionment on removing "Black Lives Matter" signage/materials and renaming a 16th Street segment "Liberty Plaza" within 60 days.
Withholds half of the District of Columbia’s annual federal highway apportionment unless the Mayor, within 60 days, removes the phrase “Black Lives Matter” from a named segment of 16th Street, N.W. and from official DC materials and websites, and renames that segment “Liberty Plaza.” The measure also makes a clerical adjustment to the chapter listing for title 23, U.S.C. Funds are withheld for each fiscal year beginning after enactment if the required actions are not completed.
Introduced March 3, 2025 by Andrew S. Clyde · Last progress March 3, 2025