S. 3490 — National Historical Park and National Historic Landmark Establishment and Boundary Adjustments Act of 2025

This section establishes the Fort Ontario Holocaust Refugee Shelter National Historical Park as a unit of the National Park System in New York to preserve, protect, and interpret resources associated with the 982 World War II refugees housed at Fort Ontario from August 1944 to February 1946. Establishment is subject to the Secretary of the Interior determining that sufficient land or interests in land within the proposed boundary—depicted on map numbered 962/194,681 and dated September 2024—have been acquired to constitute a manageable unit, followed by Federal Register notice within 30 days. The Secretary shall administer the park consistent with laws generally applicable to National Park System units, including authority to enter cooperative agreements with New York or other entities for interpretive and educational services and to identify, interpret, and restore nearby non-Federal historic or cultural resources (ensuring reasonable public access); and acquire land or interests within the boundary by donation, purchase with donated or appropriated funds, or exchange (state- or locally owned land only by donation). Not later than three fiscal years after funds are made available, the Secretary, in consultation with New York, shall complete a general management plan for the park in accordance with section 100502 of title 54, United States Code. (As background, section 100502 requires National Park System general management plans to address resource preservation, types and intensities of development (including visitor circulation, transportation, timing, and costs), visitor carrying capacities, and potential boundary modifications.)

This section designates America’s National Churchill Museum at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri—including the Winston Churchill Memorial listed on the National Register of Historic Places—as the “America’s National Churchill Museum National Historic Landmark.” It authorizes the Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the state of Missouri, the city of Fulton, and the college, to enter into cooperative agreements with public or private entities to protect the Landmark’s historic resources and provide educational and interpretive facilities and programs and to provide technical and financial assistance for those purposes. The section specifies that the designation does not limit property owners’ actions or affect administration of the Landmark by the state, city, or college. This section further directs the Secretary to conduct a special resource study of the Landmark in accordance with section 100507 of title 54, United States Code (i.e., the National Park Service’s framework for evaluating areas’ national significance, suitability, and feasibility for inclusion in the National Park System, including alternatives for preservation by federal, state, local, or private entities). The Secretary must submit a report on the study’s results, conclusions, and recommendations to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House Committee on Natural Resources not later than three years after funds are made available.