This bill instructs the Joint Committee of Congress on the Library to obtain a statue of Shirley Chisholm and place it in a permanent public location within the United States Capitol. It gives the Committee up to two years to enter into an agreement and explicitly permits delegation to the Architect of the Capitol to execute contracts on the Committee’s behalf.
The statute also authorizes whatever funding is necessary to complete the project and allows those funds to remain available until spent. While symbolically straightforward, the bill creates concrete administrative obligations: procurement or commission decisions, site selection inside the Capitol, and budgeting and oversight questions for congressional managers and the Architect’s office.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill requires the Joint Committee on the Library to enter into an agreement within two years to obtain a statue of Shirley Chisholm and to place it in a public permanent location in the United States Capitol. It allows the Joint Committee to authorize the Architect of the Capitol to enter into the necessary agreement and related contracts, and it authorizes ‘‘such sums as may be necessary’’ for the project.
Who It Affects
Directly affects the Joint Committee on the Library and the Architect of the Capitol, who will execute procurement and placement tasks. It also matters to sculptors and contractors who might bid for the commission, the Capitol custodial and preservation staff who will maintain the piece, and visitors and institutions that use the Capitol for educational programming.
Why It Matters
Placing a new, permanent statue in the Capitol is a substantive addition to the federal collection and a visible statement about representation in national civic spaces. The bill sets procurement and funding into motion but leaves detailed decisions — selection criteria, design, exact location, and cost limits — to the Joint Committee and applicable law, which shifts operational burdens to congressional managers.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill creates a clear, narrow command: within two years of enactment, the Joint Committee on the Library must secure a statue of Shirley Chisholm for the United States Capitol. It does not dictate the statue’s size, artist, or material; instead it empowers the Committee to negotiate and contract under terms the Committee considers appropriate so long as those terms comply with existing law.
Practically, that means the Committee will decide whether to commission a new work, accept a donated piece, or contract with an artist or foundry.
The statute specifically permits the Joint Committee to delegate contracting authority to the Architect of the Capitol, which is the agency that manages Capitol construction, conservation, and placement of artworks. That delegation power includes entering the underlying agreement and any related contracts necessary to complete the commission and installation.
The bill therefore routes the day-to-day procurement and project management to the Architect’s office while preserving ultimate responsibility with the Joint Committee.On placement, the bill requires that the statue be installed in a public permanent location in the Capitol. That phrasing distinguishes the installation from temporary exhibits or off-site loans and triggers site-selection work: identifying an appropriate public space, planning for installation logistics, addressing security and visitor flow, and preserving the Capitol’s aesthetic and conservation standards.
Finally, the bill authorizes ‘‘such sums as may be necessary’’ to carry out these tasks and specifies that appropriations will remain available until expended, which gives flexibility on timing but means Congress has not set a spending cap or schedule in the statute.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill requires the Joint Committee on the Library to enter into an agreement to obtain a statue of Shirley Chisholm no later than two years after enactment.
The Joint Committee may authorize the Architect of the Capitol to enter into the agreement and any related contracts on the Committee’s behalf.
The statue must be placed in a public permanent location within the United States Capitol—temporary displays or off-site placements are not authorized by the text.
The statute authorizes ‘‘such sums as may be necessary’’ to implement the project and specifies those appropriations shall remain available until expended, rather than setting a fixed funding amount.
The bill does not set design, selection, or procurement criteria, nor does it establish a funding cap or a requirement for public consultation—those choices are left to the Committee and to applicable law.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Authority and deadline to obtain the statue
This subsection obligates the Joint Committee to obtain a statue within two years and permits the Committee to negotiate terms ‘‘as the Joint Committee considers appropriate consistent with applicable law.’’ In practice that delegates major substantive choices—whether to commission a new work, accept a donation, or run a competitive procurement—to the Committee, while still requiring compliance with federal contracting, gifting, or donation rules that apply to Capitol property.
Delegation to the Architect of the Capitol for contracting
The text explicitly allows the Joint Committee to authorize the Architect of the Capitol to enter into the agreement and any related contracts on its behalf. That delegation moves operational responsibility—artist selection processes, contract drafting, payment schedules, fabrication oversight, and installation logistics—to the Architect’s office, which already handles conservation and placement of artworks in the Capitol complex.
Placement requirement and funding authorization
Subsection (b) mandates placement in a ‘‘public permanent location’’ in the U.S. Capitol, which raises site-selection, visitor-access, and preservation questions. Subsection (c) authorizes appropriations of whatever sums are necessary and allows those funds to remain available until expended. The bill therefore creates an open-ended funding authorization without a dollar limit or timetable and leaves budgeting details to appropriations processes.
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Explore Culture in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Descendants, historians, and organizations focused on Shirley Chisholm’s legacy—gain a nationally visible, permanent commemorative site that elevates her historical role and supports educational programming.
- Cultural and educational institutions—museums, schools, and civic groups will gain a focal point in the Capitol for exhibitions, tours, and curricula about Chisholm and related political history.
- Artists, sculptors, and foundries—stand to benefit from potential commissions or contracts when the Architect of the Capitol carries out procurement and fabrication work.
- Capitol visitors and educators—receive a new interpretive asset in the public space of the Capitol, expanding representational diversity visible to the public and to congressional constituents.
Who Bears the Cost
- Federal appropriations/taxpayers—will ultimately fund procurement, fabrication, installation, and long-term conservation through the unspecified ‘‘such sums as may be necessary’’ authorization.
- Architect of the Capitol and its staff—assume project management, contracting, installation, and ongoing maintenance responsibilities that will require staff time and potentially additional operational funds.
- Joint Committee on the Library—assumes responsibility for selecting procurement approach and overseeing delegation decisions, exposing it to political scrutiny and administrative workload.
- Contractors and artists—must comply with federal procurement rules, reporting, insurance, and security requirements, which can increase their compliance costs compared with private commissions.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is symbolic clarity versus operational ambiguity: the bill decisively adds Shirley Chisholm to the Capitol’s public art, a clear representational choice, but it defers all substantive implementation decisions—procurement method, artist selection, design, location, and budget—to the Joint Committee and applicable law, forcing administrators to translate a simple mandate into detailed, potentially contentious actions without statutory guardrails.
Two practical tensions stand out. First, the bill signals urgency by imposing a two-year deadline but leaves cost, selection, and design decisions unspecified.
Without a funding cap or procurement plan in the statute, the Committee and the Architect of the Capitol must balance artistic, conservation, and security requirements against uncertain budget authority and possible political debates over artist selection or design.
Second, the phrase ‘‘consistent with applicable law’’ blankets a range of statutory and regulatory constraints—federal procurement rules, donation acceptance policies, and inventory rules for the Capitol complex—yet the bill does not identify which rules will govern or whether the work will be treated as a federal acquisition, a gift, or some hybrid. That ambiguity creates implementation questions: how will the Committee run a selection process that withstands legal and public scrutiny, how will site selection reconcile with existing Capitol space limitations, and who bears long-term conservation costs?
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