On July 14, two Congressional representatives—Dina Titus (D-Nevada) and Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) proposed a bill that would protect public artworks commissioned by the U.S. government.
The PRESERVE Act (“Protecting Resources and Ensuring Stewardship of Enduring Records of Visual Expression Act”) would require the General Services Administration, which manages federal agencies, to identify any artworks contained within government buildings deemed “surplus property” and form a committee to oversee the future of said artworks.
“Publicly commissioned art should never become collateral damage when federal buildings are sold or otherwise disposed of” said Titus, a co-sponsor of the bill, in a statement. “It is critical that we establish a process to protect these national treasures and ensure the public has full access to the 26,000 works of art exhibited in museums and federal buildings around the country, no matter who sits in the Oval Office. Art commissioned by the federal government is a vital part of our national heritage and deserves to be preserved for future generations.”
While the language of the PRESERVE Act does not specifically mention any government buildings, Titus and Doggett’s statement calls out the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building. For the past nine months, preservationists, artists, and senators have been advocating to save the Cohen building, known as the “Sistine Chapel of New Deal Art.”
The landmark building designed by Charles Z. Klauder opened in 1940 during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency and was originally home to the Social Security Administration. Its walls are decorated with sweeping murals by Philip Guston, Ben Shahn, and twin sisters Ethel and Jenne Magafan. Despite this, President Trump has threatened to demolish the Cohen building, along with three others.
Living New Deal, a nonprofit that is working on a database of New Deal public artworks across America, is one of the organizations that has endorsed the PRESERVE Act. The organization’s petition, launched in November 2025 to save the Cohen, was in response to the GSA’s new “accelerated disposal” program, which enables federal properties to be sold with limited public input. In the spring of 2025, 45 buildings were listed for accelerated disposal, the Cohen building among them; three more have been added in 2026.
But, as Mary Okin, assistant director of Living New Deal, pointed out. “The GSA is the primary steward of New Deal art, all of which belongs to the American people.” The point of view of the bill is clear: The agency should be in the business of preserving it, not destroying it.
