Gateway Arch National Park can host private events in buildings.
H.R. 5254 — Gateway Partnership Act · Filed by Wesley Bell (D-MO) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 10, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
The bill lets the Secretary of the Interior sign a deal with the Gateway Arch Park Foundation. The Foundation can run private events in park buildings. These include the Visitor Center and Old Courthouse. The Foundation must buy insurance and pay fees for upkeep. Public access cannot be blocked.
Who it affects
The public keeps full access to the park and buildings. The park gets money from private events instead of taxpayers. The Gateway Arch Park Foundation gets to run private events.
One thing to notice
The bill shields the federal government from injury claims during Foundation events. The bill does not define what counts as a private event.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 1 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Sep 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 10, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources and Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
- Dec 2, 2025 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Hearings Held”
- Jan 22, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Jan 22, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported in the Nature of a Substitute (Amended) by Unanimous Consent”
- Mar 16, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H2519-2520)”
- Mar 16, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Wittman moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 1 reports from Dec 2025 to Dec 2025.
Those reports show $139,430 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 46 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Wesley Bell, who sponsored the bill, received $671,695 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- National Parks Conservation Association — $139,430 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- Secretary of the Interior — The government official who runs the Department of the Interior and manages national parks.
- Gateway Arch Park Foundation — A nonprofit group that works with Gateway Arch National Park.
- private events — Gatherings like weddings or fundraisers not open to the general public.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,454 characters) on Jul 9, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,938 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jan 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-11-05.
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