House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) sponsored H.R. 7573, a bill to remove all statues of individuals who voluntarily served in the Confederacy from the U.S. Capitol building, starting with John C. Calhoun, Charles B. Aycock, and John C. Clarke, who defended slavery, segregation, and white supremacy. This bill would also replace the bust of Roger Brooke Taney--the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court who wrote the majority opinion in the notorius Dred Scott ruling of 1857, which defended both slavery and white supremacy--with a bust of Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court’s first Black justice and a champion for justice and equality. This is a small but important step in helping to ameliorate the pain that racism has caused Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other people of color over centuries by removing celebrations of our nation’s history of oppression from public spaces--especially in the U.S. Capitol, a building that belongs to the people. On July 22, the House approved H.R. 7573 by a vote of 305-113 (House roll call vote 156). YES IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE. The Senate took no action on this legislation.