Bill stops the government from taking Mount Cristo Rey for border wall.
H.R. 9739 — Mount Cristo Rey Protection Act · Filed by Veronica Escobar (D-TX) · Introduced Jul 16, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
The bill bans the federal government from spending money on a lawsuit. The lawsuit seeks to seize land around Mount Cristo Rey in New Mexico. It also stops federal money from paying for security structures. These structures include fences, roads, cameras, and sensors on or near the mountain. Mount Cristo Rey is owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces. Over 40,000 pilgrims visit the mountain each year.
Who it affects
People who visit Mount Cristo Rey for religious reasons keep access to the site. Taxpayers do not pay for the government to take the land. The bill protects religious practice and public access to a culturally important place.
One thing to notice
The bill names a specific pending lawsuit and stops federal money for it. This is an unusual way for Congress to act on a single case.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Jul 16, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 16, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- pilgrims — People who travel to a place for religious reasons.
- federal money — Money that comes from the U.S. government, not from states or private sources.
- lawsuit — A legal case brought in court to settle a disagreement.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,613 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 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 2026-09-23.
“Bill stops the government from taking Mount Cristo Rey for border wall.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr9739/simple Report an error