Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024
Floor Speech
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Mrs. HARSHBARGER. Mr. Chairman, the Democrats have been hard at work revising American history, from the removal of statues to renaming military bases. They truly believe they can and should erase the history and progress we have made since our Nation was founded for their own political benefit.
When Secretary Haaland took over as Secretary of the Interior, she immediately made a point to politicize the Board on Geographic Names through deeming the word ``squaw'' as derogatory. This would entail removing any word containing squaw from any geographic landmark or unincorporated town, resulting in the town of Squawberry in Tennessee's First District to be renamed as Partridgeberry.
I am standing here to argue that the Federal Government has no business renaming towns and erasing our history. This is blatant government overreach, and we should not allow our government to continue to force our revisionist history upon my constituents or anybody else's constituents.
I don't believe the Founding Fathers viewed historical revision as a key function of our government. Changing the name of small towns throughout America, such as Squawberry, is entirely unnecessary.
When historical revisionists are given an inch, they will take a mile. How long will it be until the Department of the Interior decides to remove the mission of Washington or Jefferson from geographic landmarks? I don't trust this administration to act in good faith. They have politicized vast swaths of the government, and the Board on Geographic Names is yet just another victim of those seeking to use our government and its agencies as tools to further their own agenda.
For these reasons, I believe we must prohibit the funding on the Board on Geographic Names and put an end to this woke revisionist policy being forced upon the American public.
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Mrs. HARSHBARGER. Mr. Chairman, I go back to my original statement. The Federal Government has no business renaming towns and erasing our history. That should be left to local and State entities to decide.
Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.
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