Congress honors first museum owned and operated by blind Americans
S. 3371 — National Museum of the Blind People’s Movement Act · Filed by Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Dec 4, 2025 · Reported out
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
This bill designates the Museum of the Blind People's Movement in Baltimore, Maryland—owned and operated by the National Federation of the Blind—as the official 'National Museum of the Blind People's Movement.' The designation is honorary and carries no direct funding, mandate, or operational change; it formally recognizes the museum's role in preserving and presenting the history of blind people's civil rights activism and contributions to American society.
Why we flagged it
The bill performs a single, straightforward act: conferring an honorary national designation on an existing museum. It is purely commemorative and symbolic, with no regulatory, financial, or operational mechanism.
What the text implies
- Designation may increase federal visibility and potential future funding requests or partnerships, though the bill itself appropriates no money.
- National designation may enhance the museum's credibility and draw for researchers, educators, and visitors seeking authoritative disability-history resources.
- The bill implicitly endorses the National Federation of the Blind as the custodian of blind-history narrative at the national level, potentially influencing how disability history is taught and understood.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The designation amplifies public recognition of blind people's civil rights history and the National Federation of the Blind's eight-decade advocacy, without imposing costs or restrictions on citizens. It elevates a historically marginalized narrative in American civic memory and may increase public understanding of disability-rights movements.
Named in the bill
National Federation of the Blind, Museum of the Blind People's Movement, Jernigan Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, World Blind Union, International Federation of the Blind
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Dec 4, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Dec 4, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
- Jul 21, 2026 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks. Hearings held”
- Sep 30, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported with an amendment favorably”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $20,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 12 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Chris Van Hollen, the sponsor, reported $81,250 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Federation of the Blind — $20,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,000 characters) on Sep 27, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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 Jun 2026. 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 Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress honors first museum owned and operated by blind Americans” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s3371 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.