Title: To set forth the policy of the United States regarding vandalism, and for other purposes.
Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement

Summary:
This bill provides statutory authority for a June 26, 2020, executive order directing various agencies to take actions related to protecting monuments, memorials, and statues from vandalism, such as ordering the Department of Justice to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of cases involving vandalism of a monument, government property, or religious property.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7643 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 7643

 To set forth the policy of the United States regarding vandalism, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 16, 2020

 Mrs. Lesko (for herself, Mr. Hice of Georgia, Mr. Fulcher, Mr. Biggs, 
  Mr. Harris, Mr. Norman, Mr. Duncan, Mr. DesJarlais, Mr. Davidson of 
Ohio, Mr. Roy, Mr. Cloud, Mr. Wright, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Yoho, Mr. Budd, 
    Mr. Gosar, Mr. Gibbs, Mr. Steube, and Mr. Guest) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, 
 and in addition to the Committees on Oversight and Reform, and Armed 
Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in 
   each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the 
                jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To set forth the policy of the United States regarding vandalism, and 
                          for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. PURPOSE.

    The purpose of this Act is as follows:
            (1) The first duty of government is to ensure domestic 
        tranquility and defend the life, property, and rights of its 
        citizens. Recently, there has been a sustained assault on the 
        life and property of civilians, law enforcement officers, 
        government property, and revered American monuments such as the 
        Lincoln Memorial. Many of the rioters, arsonists, and 
        extremists who have carried out and supported these acts have 
        explicitly identified themselves with ideologies--such as 
        Marxism--that call for the destruction of the United States 
        system of government.
            (2) Anarchists and extremists have sought to advance a 
        fringe ideology that paints the United States of America as 
        fundamentally unjust and have sought to impose that ideology on 
        Americans through violence and mob intimidation. They have led 
        riots in the streets, burned police vehicles, killed and 
        assaulted government officers as well as business owners 
        defending their property, and even seized an area within one 
        city where law and order gave way to anarchy. During the 
        unrest, innocent citizens also have been harmed and killed.
            (3) These criminal acts are frequently planned and 
        supported by agitators who have traveled across State lines to 
        promote their own violent agenda. These radicals shamelessly 
        attack the legitimacy of our institutions and the very rule of 
        law itself.
            (4) Key targets in the violent extremists' campaign against 
        our country are public monuments, memorials, and statues. Their 
        selection of targets reveals a deep ignorance of our history, 
        and is indicative of a desire to indiscriminately destroy 
        anything that honors our past and to erase from the public mind 
        any suggestion that our past may be worth honoring, cherishing, 
        remembering, or understanding. For example, vandals toppled a 
        statue of President Ulysses S. Grant in San Francisco. To them, 
        it made no difference that President Grant led the Union Army 
        to victory over the Confederacy in the Civil War, enforced 
        Reconstruction, fought the Ku Klux Klan, and advocated for the 
        Fifteenth Amendment, which guaranteed freed slaves the right to 
        vote. In Charlotte, North Carolina, the names of 507 veterans 
        memorialized on a World War II monument were painted over with 
        a symbol of communism. In Boston, a memorial commemorating an 
        African-American regiment that fought in the Civil War was 
        defaced with graffiti. In Madison, Wisconsin, rioters knocked 
        over the statue of an abolitionist immigrant who fought for the 
        Union during the Civil War. Christian figures are now in the 
        crosshairs, too. Recently, an influential activist for one 
        movement that has been prominent in setting the agenda for 
        demonstrations in recent weeks declared that many existing 
        religious depictions of Jesus and the Holy Family should be 
        purged from our places of worship.
            (5) Individuals and organizations have the right to 
        peacefully advocate for either the removal or the construction 
        of any monument. But no individual or group has the right to 
        damage, deface, or remove any monument by use of force.
            (6) In the midst of these attacks, many State and local 
        governments appear to have lost the ability to distinguish 
        between the lawful exercise of rights to free speech and 
        assembly and unvarnished vandalism. They have surrendered to 
        mob rule, imperiling community safety, allowing for the 
        wholesale violation of our laws, and privileging the violent 
        impulses of the mob over the rights of law-abiding citizens. 
        Worse, they apparently have lost the will or the desire to 
        stand up to the radical fringe and defend the fundamental truth 
        that America is good, her people are virtuous, and that justice 
        prevails in this country to a far greater extent than anywhere 
        else in the world. Some particularly misguided public officials 
        even appear to have accepted the idea that violence can be 
        virtuous and have prevented their police from enforcing the law 
        and protecting public monuments, memorials, and statues from 
        the mob's ropes and graffiti.

SEC. 2. POLICY.

    (a) It is the policy of the United States to prosecute to the 
fullest extent permitted under Federal law, and as appropriate, any 
person or any entity that destroys, damages, vandalizes, or desecrates 
a monument, memorial, or statue within the United States or otherwise 
vandalizes government property. The desire of the Congress to protect 
Federal property is clearly reflected in section 1361 of title 18, 
United States Code, which authorizes a penalty of up to 10 years' 
imprisonment for the willful injury of Federal property. More recently, 
under the Veterans' Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act of 2003, 
section 1369 of title 18, United States Code, the Congress punished 
with the same penalties the destruction of Federal and in some cases 
State-maintained monuments that honor military veterans. Other criminal 
statutes, such as the Travel Act, section 1952 of title 18, United 
States Code, permit prosecutions of arson damaging monuments, 
memorials, and statues on State grounds in some cases. Civil statutes 
like the Public System Resource Protection Act, section 100722 of title 
54, United States Code, also hold those who destroy certain Federal 
property accountable for their offenses. The Federal Government will 
not tolerate violations of these and other laws.
    (b) It is the policy of the United States to prosecute to the 
fullest extent permitted under Federal law, and as appropriate, any 
person or any entity that participates in efforts to incite violence or 
other illegal activity in connection with the riots and acts of 
vandalism described in section 1. Numerous Federal laws, including 
section 2101 of title 18, United States Code, prohibit the violence 
that has typified the past few weeks in some cities. Other statutes 
punish those who participate in or assist the agitators who have 
coordinated these lawless acts. Such laws include section 371 of title 
18, United States Code, which criminalizes certain conspiracies to 
violate Federal law, section 2 of title 18, United States Code, which 
punishes those who aid or abet the commission of Federal crimes, and 
section 2339A of title 18, United States Code, which prohibits as 
material support to terrorism efforts to support a defined set of 
Federal crimes. Those who have joined in recent violent acts around the 
United States will be held accountable.
    (c) It is the policy of the United States to prosecute to the 
fullest extent permitted under Federal law, and as appropriate, any 
person or any entity that damages, defaces, or destroys religious 
property, including by attacking, removing, or defacing depictions of 
Jesus or other religious figures or religious art work. Federal laws 
prohibit, under certain circumstances, damage or defacement of 
religious property, including the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996, 
section 247 of title 18, United States Code, and section 371 of title 
18, United States Code. The Federal Government will not tolerate 
violations of these laws designed to protect the free exercise of 
religion.
    (d) It is the policy of the United States, as appropriate and 
consistent with applicable law, to withhold Federal support tied to 
public spaces from State and local governments that have failed to 
protect public monuments, memorials, and statues from destruction or 
vandalism. These jurisdictions' recent abandonment of their law 
enforcement responsibilities with respect to public monuments, 
memorials, and statues casts doubt on their willingness to protect 
other public spaces and maintain the peace within them. These 
jurisdictions are not appropriate candidates for limited Federal funds 
that support public spaces.
    (e) It is the policy of the United States, as appropriate and 
consistent with applicable law, to withhold Federal support from State 
and local law enforcement agencies that have failed to protect public 
monuments, memorials, and statues from destruction or vandalism. 
Unwillingness to enforce State and local laws in the face of attacks on 
our history, whether because of sympathy for the extremists behind this 
violence or some other improper reason, casts doubt on the management 
of these law enforcement agencies. These law enforcement agencies are 
not appropriate candidates for limited Federal funds that support State 
and local police.

SEC. 3. ENFORCING LAWS PROHIBITING THE DESECRATION OF PUBLIC MONUMENTS, 
              THE VANDALISM OF GOVERNMENT PROPERTY, AND RECENT ACTS OF 
              VIOLENCE.

    (a) In General.--The Attorney General shall prioritize within the 
Department of Justice the investigation and prosecution of matters 
described in subsections (a), (b), and (c) of section 2. The Attorney 
General shall take all appropriate enforcement action against 
individuals and organizations found to have violated Federal law 
through these investigations.
    (b) Coordination With States and Localities.--The Attorney General 
shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, work with 
State and local law enforcement authorities and Federal agencies to 
ensure the Federal Government appropriately provides information and 
assistance to State and local law enforcement authorities in connection 
with their investigations or prosecutions for the desecration of 
monuments, memorials, and statues, regardless of whether such 
structures are situated on Federal property.

SEC. 4. LIMITING FEDERAL GRANTS FOR JURISDICTIONS AND LAW ENFORCEMENT 
              AGENCIES THAT PERMIT THE DESECRATION OF MONUMENTS, 
              MEMORIALS, OR STATUES.

    The heads of all executive departments and agencies shall examine 
their respective grant programs and apply the policies established by 
subsections (d) and (e) of section 2 to all such programs to the extent 
that such application is both appropriate and consistent with 
applicable law.

SEC. 5. PROVIDING ASSISTANCE FOR THE PROTECTION OF FEDERAL MONUMENTS, 
              MEMORIALS, STATUES, AND PROPERTY.

     Upon the request of the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary 
of Homeland Security, or the Administrator of General Services, the 
Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of 
Homeland Security shall provide, as appropriate and consistent with 
applicable law, personnel to assist with the protection of Federal 
monuments, memorials, statues, or property. This section shall 
terminate 6 months from the date of this Act unless extended by 
Congress.

SEC. 6. GENERAL PROVISIONS.

    (a) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this Act shall be construed 
to impair or otherwise affect--
            (1) the authority granted by law to an executive department 
        or agency, or the head thereof; or
            (2) the functions of the Director of the Office of 
        Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or 
        legislative proposals.
    (b) Consistency With Existing Law.--This Act shall be implemented 
consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of 
appropriations.
    (c) No Rights Created.--This Act is not intended to, and does not, 
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at 
law or in equity by any party against the United States, its 
departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, 
or any other person.
    (d) Prosecutorial Discretion.--This Act is not intended to, and 
does not, affect the prosecutorial discretion of the Department of 
Justice with respect to individual cases.
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