Congress lets Thomas Paine monument break normal placement rules
H.R. 9600 — Common Sense 250 Act of 2026 · Filed by Jamie Raskin (D-MD) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Jul 6, 2026 · Reported out
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What it does
This bill approves a monument to Thomas Paine in Washington, D.C. It lets the monument be built in an area that normal rules would not allow. Thomas Paine was a political writer and Founding Father.
Who it affects
People who visit Washington, D.C. will see the new monument. Other groups might ask for their own exceptions to monument rules.
One thing to notice
The bill makes an exception to the Commemorative Works Act. This could lead to more special requests that break the same rules.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Jul 6, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 6, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
- Sep 2, 2026 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Hearings Held”
- Sep 15, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Sep 15, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported by Unanimous Consent”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- Commemorative Works Act — Federal law that sets uniform rules for where monuments can be built
- Founding Father — A leader who helped create the United States
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (634 characters) on Sep 5, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,522 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-22.
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