Equality Caucus Celebrates Defeat of GOP's Hijacked Women’s History Museum Bill

Chair Takano: “Republicans in Congress tried to politicize an overwhelmingly bipartisan issue to curry favor with Donald Trump—but this time, they weren’t successful”

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, the House defeated H.R. 1329, the “Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Act,” which had partisan language that would have handed Trump unilateral authority over the museum’s location and included an anti-transgender provision. Following the bill’s bipartisan defeat, Rep. Mark Takano (CA-39), Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, released the following statement:

“Once again, Republicans in Congress tried to politicize an overwhelmingly bipartisan issue to curry favor with Donald Trump—but this time, they weren’t successful,” said Rep. Mark Takano, Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus. “If Republicans truly wanted to just authorize a location for the Smithsonian Women’s History Museum they would have put the original bipartisan bill on the floor. Instead, they tried hijacking it to give Trump unilateral control over the museum’s location and—because they just couldn’t help themselves—added an anti-transgender rider that would have censored the stories of transgender women and opened the door for the inclusion of any woman in the museum to be challenged if the woman didn’t fit Republicans’ idea of what a woman should look like. I’m glad to see this Republican hijacking fail. My colleagues and I are going to continue fighting for the original bipartisan museum bill to become law.”

BACKGROUND
H.R. 1329, the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum Act, as introduced, would authorize the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum to be located within the Reserve of the National Mall.

Rather than moving the bipartisan text as introduced—which had more than 200 cosponsors—Rep. Mary Miller offered a partisan amendment in the nature of a substitute at the Committee on House Administration’s March 18 markup of the bill, which was adopted by the Republicans on the committee. The amendment gives President Trump unilateral authority to disregard the Smithsonian’s recommended site and pick his own and gives power to boards like the National Capital Planning Commission—that are stacked with Trump loyalists—to dictate the museum building designs and plans. The amendment also adds a “scope of mission” that states that the Museum will be focused on the history, achievements, and lived experiences of “biological women” and that the Museum may not identify, present, describe, or otherwise depict transgender women as women. This would bar the museum from including transgender women or girls. The bill does not include a definition for “biological women” but could be used to ban depictions of intersex women as well (i.e., women who have variations in their sex characteristics that do not fit typical conceptions about female bodies). This provision also invites arbitrary enforcement and could be used to challenge the inclusion of any woman or girl a politician deems not “feminine” enough. This bill has been worked on carefully as a bipartisan effort for years, and this amendment throws out that progress to attack trans women and to give President Trump the keys to the American Women’s History Museum.

The bill also omits the National Museum of the American Latino, which has historically been considered, advanced, and championed in tandem with the Women’s History Museum.

On April 16, 2026, 146 members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus (DWC) and House Democratic Caucus, led by Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, Rep. Judy Chu, and Rep. Debbie Dingell, sent a letter to Speaker Johnson demanding he restore the longstanding, bipartisan version of H.R. 1329. Read the DWC’s full press release here.