I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1581
To establish the Fort Monroe National Historical Park in the Commonwealth
of Virginia, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY25, 2025
Mr. S
COTTof Virginia (for himself, Mr. WITTMAN, Ms. MCCLELLAN, and
Mrs. K
IGGANSof Virginia) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Natural Resources
A BILL
To establish the Fort Monroe National Historical Park in
the Commonwealth of Virginia, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fort Monroe National 4
Historical Park Establishment Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
In this Act: 7
(1) C
OMMONWEALTH .—The term ‘‘Common-8
wealth’’ means the Commonwealth of Virginia. 9
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(2) MAP.—The term ‘‘Map’’ means the map ti-1
tled ‘‘Fort Monroe National Historical Park Pro-2
posed Boundary’’, numbered 250/193734, and dated 3
June 2024. 4
(3) H
ISTORICAL PARK.—The term ‘‘Historical 5
Park’’ means the Fort Monroe National Historical 6
Park established by section (3)(a). 7
(4) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 8
the Secretary of the Interior. 9
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF FORT MONROE NATIONAL HIS-10
TORICAL PARK. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—There is established the Fort 12
Monroe National Historical Park in the Commonwealth to 13
preserve the historic, natural, and recreational resources 14
of Fort Monroe and interpret for the benefit of present 15
and future generations— 16
(1) Old Point Comfort, its relationship to the 17
voyages of Captain John Smith, its location as the 18
first entry place of captive Africans into English 19
North America, its use for successive fortifications, 20
and its role in the War of 1812; 21
(2) the development and use of Fort Monroe as 22
a coastal defense facility and artillery training cen-23
ter, including its military and community life; 24
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(3) the fort’s role in the Civil War, including 1
the 1861 Contraband Decision providing a pathway 2
to freedom for those escaping enslavement during 3
that war, and the formation and service of United 4
States Colored Troop units stationed at Fort Mon-5
roe; 6
(4) persons and events associated with the fort, 7
which contributed to its and the Nation’s history, 8
and their relevance to modern society; and 9
(5) the natural and recreational resource values 10
associated with Fort Monroe. 11
(b) A
BOLISHMENT OF NATIONALMONUMENT.—The 12
Fort Monroe National Monument, established by Presi-13
dential Proclamation 8750 of November 1, 2011 (54 14
U.S.C. 320301 note), is abolished and all land or interests 15
in land therein are incorporated into, and shall be consid-16
ered to be part of, the Historical Park. 17
(c) A
VAILABILITY OF FUNDS.—Any unobligated 18
funds available for purposes of the Fort Monroe National 19
Monument shall be available for purposes of the Historical 20
Park. 21
(d) R
EFERENCES.—Any reference in a law, regula-22
tion, document, record, map, or other paper of the United 23
States to Fort Monroe National Monument shall be 24
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deemed to be a reference to ‘‘Fort Monroe National His-1
torical Park’’. 2
SEC. 4. BOUNDARY; ACQUISITION OF LAND. 3
(a) B
OUNDARY.—The boundary of the Historical 4
Park shall be as generally depicted on the Map. 5
(b) A
VAILABILITY OFMAP.—The Map shall be on file 6
and available for public inspection in the appropriate of-7
fices of the National Park Service. 8
(c) A
CQUISITION OFLAND.—The Secretary may ac-9
quire land, including interests in land, within the bound-10
aries of the Historical Park by donation, transfer, ex-11
change, or purchase from a willing seller using donated 12
or appropriated funds. 13
SEC. 5. ADMINISTRATION. 14
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary shall administer 15
the Historical Park in accordance with— 16
(1) this Act; and 17
(2) the laws generally applicable to units of the 18
National Park System, including— 19
(A) section 100101(a), chapter 1003, and 20
sections 100751(a), 100752, 100753 and 21
102101 of title 54, United States Code; and 22
(B) chapter 3201 of title 54, United States 23
Code. 24
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(b) FEDERAL, COMMONWEALTH , ANDLOCALJURIS-1
DICTION.— 2
(1) F
EDERAL AUTHORITY .—Except as other-3
wise provided in this Act, nothing shall enlarge, di-4
minish or modify any authority of the United States 5
to carry out Federal laws and regulations on Federal 6
land located within the boundary of the Historical 7
Park. 8
(2) C
OMMONWEALTH AUTHORITY .—Nothing in 9
this Act enlarges, diminishes, or modifies any au-10
thority of the Commonwealth, or any political sub-11
division of the Commonwealth— 12
(A) to exercise civil and criminal jurisdic-13
tion unless an agreement for concurrent juris-14
diction is executed and modifies Commonwealth 15
or local government jurisdiction in any way; or 16
(B) to carry out Commonwealth laws, reg-17
ulations and rules on non-Federal land located 18
within the boundary of the Historical Park. 19
(c) N
ONETLOSS OFCOMMONWEALTH OWNED 20
B
UILDINGS ANDSTRUCTURES.—In the event of loss or 21
authorized demolition of buildings or structures within the 22
Fort Monroe National Historic Landmark District, re-23
placement of the square footage from such loss or demoli-24
tion shall be permitted provided that such construction 25
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complies with the Secretary’s Standards for the Treat-1
ment of Historic Properties, and section 306108 of title 2
54, United States Code (formerly section 106 of the Na-3
tional Historic Preservation Act), as applicable. 4
(d) A
UTHORIZATION OF EX-OFFICIOAPPOINT-5
MENTS.—The Superintendent of the Historical Park is au-6
thorized to serve as an ex-officio member of such boards 7
or committees affecting Fort Monroe that the Secretary 8
considers beneficial to the preservation of Historical Park 9
resources and which further the interpretive or edu-10
cational purposes of the Historical Park. 11
(e) C
OOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS.—The Secretary 12
may enter into cooperative agreements with the Common-13
wealth or other public or private entities to identify, inter-14
pret, and provide financial and technical assistance for the 15
preservation of non-Federal resources within the boundary 16
of the Historical Park and outside of the boundary in close 17
proximity to the Historical Park provided that— 18
(1) any cooperative agreement entered into to 19
provide assistance to non-Federal land shall provide 20
for reasonable public access to the non-Federal land; 21
(2) no changes or alterations shall be made to 22
the exterior of the properties except by mutual 23
agreement of the other parties to the agreements; 24
and 25
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(3) the Federal share of the total cost of any 1
activity carried out under the agreement shall be not 2
more than 50 percent, with in-kind contributions or 3
goods or services fairly valued authorized, as appro-4
priate, for the non-Federal share. 5
(f) A
DAPTIVEREUSE.—Nothing in this Act shall be 6
construed to inhibit the Commonwealth from providing for 7
the adaptive reuse of the interior of any non-federally 8
owned historic resource in accordance with the Secretary’s 9
Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. 10
Æ
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