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Sutherland House, a home on the National Register of Historic Places, which will receive fewer protections from harm or demolition under proposed regulatory weakening of Section 106.
The threats to Section 106 are moving quickly. We intend to move even faster. Here you can follow the Coalition’s work, read coverage of the national campaign, track the regulatory, legislative, and executive threats, and find the latest opportunities to act.
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Reserve this day on your calendars now for a powerful rally:
Monday, November 9, 2026
U.S. Capitol
Washington D.C.
(Potential pre-rally gathering on Nov. 8th)
(Times and exact gathering locations to be announced)
For sixty years, the National Historic Preservation Act has helped protect the places that tell America's stories: Tribal sacred sites, historic neighborhoods, battlefields, burial grounds, landmarks, and the places where ordinary people made extraordinary history.
Now, those protections face one of the gravest threats in their history.
As the Senate prepares to consider legislation that would dismantle the National Historic Preservation Act, 106 Strong is calling Americans to gather at the U.S. Capitol on November 9 to stand for our history, our communities, Tribal Nations, and our right to be heard.
We are 1,000 organizations and Tribal Nations representing more than nine million Americans. We come from every corner of the country, every kind of community, and many different backgrounds. We are united by a simple conviction:
Our history belongs to all of us. No administration or Congress should be able to destroy it without listening to the people whose lives and communities it defines.
On November 9, we will bring that message directly to the nation's capital. We invite Tribal citizens, preservationists, historians, architects, archaeologists, museum professionals, students, community advocates, and everyone who cares about America's heritage to join us.
Come to Washington. Bring your colleagues. Bring your friends. Bring the stories of the places you love.
We will gather peacefully, stand together, and call on Congress to reject legislation that weakens protections for America's historic and cultural places.We will follow up in the coming days with additional details about the demonstration for everyone who registers their interest in attending.
Can't travel to Washington? You can still stand with us. Share this invitation, watch the 106 Strong film, make a donation, and help spread the word about what is at stake.
This is not simply a fight over a federal law. It is a fight over whether future generations will inherit the places that tell them who we were.
Sixty years ago, Americans came together to save their history.
On November 9, it's our turn.
106 STRONG
Defend Our History. Protect Our Future.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 19, 2026
Tribal Nations Set the Record Straight: New Analysis Shows Permitting Bill Eviscerates Tribal Rights and Consultation
Five leading organizations that serve Tribal Nations test proponents’ claims about Title III-Historic Preservation of S. 5653 against the bill’s own text, and the claims do not hold up
WASHINGTON, D.C. — For weeks, supporters of the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA, S. 5653) have been telling Congress that the bill is good for Tribal Nations. A new analysis released today tests those claims against the text of the bill.
106 Strong today released BAAJA’s Empty Promises to Tribal Nations: Claim vs. Fact, a new analysis prepared by the Tribal Nations Practice at Cultural Heritage Partners, PLLC, (CHP) alongside four national organizations that serve Tribal Nations: the Association on American Indian Affairs (AAIA), the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers (NATHPO), the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), and the Native American Rights Fund (NARF). Together, their work touches all 575 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes and villages in the United States.
The analysis takes the claims made by the bill’s sponsors and its think-tank advocates and checks each one against the legislative text. Again and again, the text tells a starkly different story.
“Every generation of federal lawmakers promises Tribal Nations that the newest law will protect them. Allotment seized two-thirds of the Tribal land base. Termination ended federal recognition for 109 Tribes and bands, and many spent decades fighting to be restored,” said Jessie Barrington, Partner and Chair of the Tribal Nations Practice at CHP. “Now the sponsors of S. 5653 are selling Title III as the next protection. In fact, it strips Tribes of the right to say what is sacred, makes consultation optional, and lets agencies override Tribal Nations at their ‘sole discretion.’ Read the bill.”
Here is some of what Title III-Historic Preservation would take from Tribal Nations:
The authority to say what is sacred. For the first time, federal law would define what makes a place sacred to a Tribe, under a narrow test that could exclude many sites already on the National Register of Historic Places. Federal officials, not Tribal Nations, would apply the test.
A real voice in decisions about their own places. Whereas current federal law requires agencies to consult Tribal Nations, under the bill agencies only “may” consult Tribal Nations when they identify the places at stake. The agency then decides alone whether a project harms those places and can conclude the review without any Tribal input.
A check on agency override. An agency may decline to avoid or even mitigate harm to a sacred place whenever, in its “sole discretion,” other undefined considerations outweigh historic preservation.
Control of their own preservation programs. Tribal Nations run historic preservation functions on their own lands as an exercise of sovereignty. The bill orders the Secretary of the Interior to suspend funding to Tribal Historic Preservation Offices that miss federal deadlines and then take over their operations, even though the rare delays that do occur are rooted in federal agency understaffing.
A seat on agreements about Tribal land. If a Tribal Historic Preservation Officer does not respond in time, the agency may sign an agreement with the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation instead, overriding Tribal sovereignty even on Tribal land.
The ability to stop destruction in court. Even after finding that a project violated Section 106, a court could only send the review back while site destruction continues.
Proponents also claim that the bill gives Tribal Nations new funding. That claim does not hold up either. New funding does little good if the bill leaves few qualified sites to spend it on, and the funding is only authorized, with nothing that actually commits the money to Tribes. A proposed grant program for Tribes to build databases of their historic places would require them to expose information about those sites to looters through public records requests.
Although supporters pitch these changes as a fix for clean energy, Title III-Historic Preservation applies to every federal undertaking, including uranium mines, oil and gas leases, and pipelines.
The analysis also finds no evidence that federal review of projects that could harm Tribal sites is what slows projects down. Of roughly 120,000 federal undertakings reviewed each year, 98 percent end with no adverse effect, and only about eight a year result in litigation. Most reviews are completed in 16 days. Bottlenecks in fact arise from federal agency understaffing, incomplete information from project applicants, and consultation that begins too late. Title III-Historic Preservation would compound those problems.
Ira Matt (Séliš), Executive Director, National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, said, “Tribal Nations are sovereign governments, not stakeholders. We did not write these provisions, we were not consulted on them, and we will not accept being told they protect us. A seat at the table means nothing if the federal government has already decided that our rights are what’s for dinner.”
The legislation was introduced by four Senate committee members: Republicans Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia) and Mike Lee (Utah), and Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island) and Martin Heinrich (New Mexico) who have remained publicly silent about the harms of their bill to Tribal Nations.
106 Strong, a coalition of 1,000 organizations and Tribal Nations joins the five organizations in calling on Senate leaders to withdraw Title III-Historic Preservation and to work with Tribal Nations, as sovereigns, on permitting reform that respects the federal trust responsibility. Any reform should start over, with Tribal Nations at the table from the first draft.
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Media Contact: Greg Werkheiser, 703-408-2002, greg@culturalheritagepartners.com
About 106 Strong
106 Strong is a national coalition of organizations, Tribal Nations, and advocates working to defend and strengthen Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. Its participants represent more than nine million Americans united in protecting historic places, Tribal sovereignty, and meaningful public participation in federal decision-making.
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The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act silences the public, breaks trust with Tribal Nations, and puts our American heritage at risk. The Senate vote is scheduled for November 9. We need 41 Senators to say no.
Read the coalition’s initial analysis, get the one-pager, and tell your members of Congress where you stand.
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September 2026 | Coalition Update
Our Coalition now includes nearly 900 Tribal Nations and organizations—and it continues to grow every day. We are on our way to 1,000 participating organizations representing 10 million Americans, united in defending Section 106 and the right of communities to have a meaningful voice in federal decisions affecting their histories and the places they value.
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September 18, 2026 | Advocacy Update
Members of both parties and both chambers of Congress are raising concerns about the proposed Section 106 rewrite and its consequences for Tribal consultation, historic places, local communities, and public participation. Coalition participants are urging additional lawmakers to speak publicly and demand meaningful oversight.
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August 28, 2026 | Action Alert
Organizations and individuals across the country are meeting with congressional offices to explain what Section 106 protects in their states and districts. Local stories are essential: lawmakers need to hear what could be lost, who would lose a voice, and how earlier and better-supported consultation can improve projects rather than delay them.
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September 17, 2026 | Accountability Update
Cultural Heritage Partners submitted an expedited Freedom of Information Act request seeking internal Advisory Council records concerning the origin, development, review, and advancement of the proposed rewrite. The request is intended to help the public understand who shaped the proposal, what evidence was considered, and why a law centered on public participation is being rewritten through a process largely closed to the public.
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September 9, 2026 | Regulatory Update
Cultural Heritage Partners met with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs to explain how the proposed rewrite could weaken consultation, exclude significant places and effects from consideration, create uncertainty, and undermine efficient federal project planning.
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September 22, 2026 | Coalition Update
The Coalition’s Open Letter calls on every member of Congress to confront three simultaneous threats to Section 106: the proposed regulatory rewrite, possible statutory changes through permitting legislation, and executive efforts to evade or undermine existing law. The letter also presents an affirmative agenda for making federal review faster, better funded, more predictable, and more effective.
During a public hearing, community members turn their backs on elected officials approving development that would destroy an ancient burial ground. Photo by Greg Werkheiser.
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