U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s plan to defund and close the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument in California has been derailed.
Cornyn, R-TX, announced his No Funding to Honor Crime Scenes Act, which would defund and close the Chavez monument and divert funding to assist law enforcement in combating the rape kit backlog, after revelations that the famed labor leader sexually abused women and girls, including his closest confidant, Dolores Huerta.
Cornyn introduced the bill under unanimous consent Tuesday, April 14, the same day two legislators — former U.S. Reps. Tony Gonzales and Eric Swalwell resigned over sexual abuse allegations. But passage of the bill was blocked by U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, after he offered an amendment to temporarily close the monument and direct the National Parks Service to meet with members of the farm labor movement, including survivors, to find a way to reorient the monument to tell the entire story of the movement.
Cornyn took to the Senate floor to blast Heinrich over the amendment, which he called “an insult to the countless victims of Cesar Chavez’s sexual misconduct.”
“Instead of taking action to end taxpayer funding celebrating this predator, for a monument to honor their abuser, his amendment would simply require the government to shut down the monument to public access while the government does a report,” Cornyn said. “We don’t need a report or a further study to delay action. We know … from his victims that he was a sexual predator. I choose to believe those victims.”
Cornyn’s decision to “believe those victims,” however, seems to be limited only to victims of Chavez — he was among the Senate Republicans, along with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, to vote against releasing files related to billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s vast and documented abuse of young girls last year.
Heinrich: Farmworkers movement ‘bigger than only one man’
For his part, Heinrich asserted that completely shutting down the Chavez monument risks erasing the farmworkers movement altogether, a fear that led Huerta to hide her abuse for decades.
“Many, like Dolores Huerta, feared that speaking up would enable those who have always opposed the farmworkers movement to erase it, along with Cesar Chavez …,” Heinrich said in a news release. “The movement Dolores Huerta and so many others fought for was always bigger than only one man.”
Additionally, Heinrich echoed concerns raised by multiple organizations that Cornyn’s bill was drafted without consultation from surviving activists, their descendants or the farmworker community that led the effort to establish the monument.
“I am concerned that what my colleague from Texas is proposing would … hide the truth about Cesar Chavez, and the incredible farmworker movement with it,” he said. “The legislation Senator Cornyn is asking us to approve today would not only abolish the Cesar Chavez National Monument. It would erase the foundational history of the farmworkers’ movement entirely. It would follow through on the threat that silenced the survivors of Chavez’s abuse.”
“Let me be clear: I agree, wholeheartedly, that we should no longer have a national monument dedicated to Cesar Chavez’s legacy,” Heinrich added. “But we absolutely should not erase this monument’s telling of the story of the farm labor movement.”
Adam Powell covers government and politics for the El Paso Times and can be reached via email at apowell@elpasotimes.com.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Sen. Cornyn’s bill to defund Cesar Chavez monument blocked
Reporting by Adam Powell, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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