Act Now to Protect Federal Historic Preservation Laws

The Bottleworks Hotel, a historic former Coca-Cola bottling plant, rich in art deco design and clad in terra cotta.

For 60 years, the National Historic Preservation Act, including Section 106, has helped ensure that communities have a voice when federally funded or permitted projects affect historic places. Now, a reform bill currently moving through the U.S. Senate (S.5653) threatens that longstanding framework of transparency, public involvement, and accountability.

If these changes move forward, communities could lose both historic places and their ability to influence decisions that permanently reshape them.

Tell your elected officials that transparency, accountability, and community voices matter.

 

Why are the National Historic Preservation Act and Section 106 important?


Enacted in 1966, the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) is a foundational statute that establishes the foundational framework for historic preservation in the United States.

Among other things, it:

  • Created the the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP)
  • Established the National Register of Historic Places and the process for adding properties to it
  • Sets up national preservation programs, funding, and state/tribal partnerships

The NHPA also outlines procedural mechanisms used to enforce the statute during project planning and development. Those mechanisms are defined in Section 106.

Since the inception of the NHPA, Section 106 has been the foundational requirement for federal agencies to “take into account” the effects of their actions on historic properties and places, enabling public participation and comment in the process, empowering state and local governments and Tribal communities to have a voice in the process, and often improving the project and enhancing the outcome.
 

How is it at risk now?


These essential pieces of legislation are under dual threats:

  1. The Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP)—comprised of a majority of presidential appointees, is advancing a sweeping and damaging proposal to rewrite the regulations for Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). If implemented, these new rules would dramatically diminish the effectiveness of the NHPA and the current legal protections for historic and cultural places.
     
  2. Substantial portions of the NHPA are also threatened by elements of the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026. Proposed language contains multiple ambiguous provisions that will lead to conflict and loss of historic resources. Additionally, federal agency authority would be expanded to a degree that would essentially cut states, Tribes, and the public out of much of the process—fundamentally altering or eliminating fundamental consultation with stakeholders. These changes would render substantial portions of the NHPA essentially moot.
     

Learn more


The best thing to do is learn and read more and stay up-to-date. The best way to do this is to follow the page by the National Trust for Historic Preservation:

https://savingplaces.org/section106

They offer deeper background into Section 106, how it's under threat, what can be done, and the timeline.
 

Contact your elected officials


HUNI also encourages you to write and CALL your elected officials to voice support for historic preservation—especially during the initial phases of a project where the future of old properties and buildings is deliberated.

Saving old places carries extraordinary advantages to our shared society, including economic, environmental, social and cultural, and more. Always remember: once a historic place is gone, it's gone.

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