A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 203 North Clay Street in Marshfield, Missouri, shall be known and designated as the "Edwin P. Hubble Post Office".

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Bill ID: 119/s/4052
Last Updated: September 14, 2026

Sponsored by

Sen. Schmitt, Eric [R-MO]

ID: S001227

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The bill

A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 203 North Clay Street in Marshfield, Missouri, shall be known and designated as the "Edwin P. Hubble Post Office".

S. 4052, 119th Congress.

The sponsor

Sen. Schmitt, Eric [R-MO]

Every bill has someone who introduced it. That name is where the paper trail starts.

The money

$158,400 raised

25 itemised contributions to this sponsor, pulled from FEC filings.

The alignment

55% match to Project 2025

This bill's text tracks the "Executive Office of the President of the United States" section, p. 90-92 of the Mandate for Leadership.

Bill's Journey to Becoming a Law

Track this bill's progress through the legislative process

Latest Action

Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 586.

September 13, 2026

Introduced

📍 Current Status

Next: The bill will be reviewed by relevant committees who will debate, amend, and vote on it.

🏛️

Committee Review

🗳️

Floor Action

✅

Passed Senate

🏛️

House Review

🎉

Passed Congress

🖊️

Presidential Action

⚖️

Became Law

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1. Introduction: A member of Congress introduces a bill in either the House or Senate.

2. Committee Review: The bill is sent to relevant committees for study, hearings, and revisions.

3. Floor Action: If approved by committee, the bill goes to the full chamber for debate and voting.

4. Other Chamber: If passed, the bill moves to the other chamber (House or Senate) for the same process.

5. Conference: If both chambers pass different versions, a conference committee reconciles the differences.

6. Presidential Action: The President can sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action.

7. Became Law: If signed (or if Congress overrides a veto), the bill becomes law!

Bill Summary

**Summary of S. 4052: The Edwin P. Hubble Post Office Designation Act**

**1. Main Purpose & Objectives** The sole purpose of S. 4052 is to rename a single United States Postal Service facility in Marshfield, Missouri—located at 203 North Clay Street—as the “Edwin P. Hubble Post Office.” This is not a policy reform, not a cost-saving measure, and certainly not a response to any pressing national crisis. It is, in essence, a ceremonial act of local pride dressed up as federal legislation. The objective? To honor Edwin P. Hubble, the famed astronomer who, despite being born in Marshfield, spent virtually none of his professional life there and is more commonly associated with institutions like Mount Wilson Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope (which, ironically, bears his name already—so why not just look up?). The bill’s true goal appears to be giving two senators from Missouri a photo-op and a press release they can mail to constituents—preferably from the newly named post office.

**2. Key Provisions & Changes to Existing Law** The bill contains two sections, both of which are about as substantive as a sugar pill: - **Section 1(a):** Mandates that the USPS facility at 203 North Clay Street shall henceforth be known as the “Edwin P. Hubble Post Office.” - **Section 1(b):** Requires that any reference to that facility in federal law, maps, regulations, or documents be deemed a reference to the new name.

That’s it. No funding, no operational changes, no oversight mechanisms. Just a linguistic decree from Congress declaring that a building’s signage must change. It’s the legislative equivalent of putting a new label on a jar of pickles and calling it innovation.

**3. Affected Parties & Stakeholders** - **Directly Affected:** The USPS employees and patrons of the Marshfield post office, who will now get to update their address labels, explain to confused relatives why their mail now comes from the “Hubble” office, and possibly endure awkward conversations about whether the astronomer ever sorted mail. - **Indirectly Affected:** Taxpayers, who fund the minutiae of this renaming—including new signage, updated federal records, and the staff time spent processing this nonsense instead of, say, addressing mail delivery delays or pension insolvency. - **Beneficiaries:** Senators Schmitt and Hawley, who get to claim they “delivered” for Missouri by naming a building after a guy who left town at 18; Edwin P. Hubble’s legacy, which now includes a postal annex in a town he barely knew; and the Hubble Space Telescope, which can now take solace in knowing its namesake shares honors with a building that likely doesn’t even have a telescope. - **Victims:** The English language, which must now absorb another redundant federal designation; historians, who must now clarify that Hubble’s greatest discoveries were made nowhere near Marshfield; and anyone who believes Congress should be fixing actual problems.

**4. Potential Impact & Implications** The practical impact is negligible. Mail will still arrive (or not, depending on USPS efficiency). The building’s function remains unchanged. The only tangible outcome is a minor bureaucratic update and a fleeting sense of civic pride for a handful of locals.

Symbolically, however, the bill is a perfect microcosm of congressional dysfunction: - It demonstrates how easily lawmakers prioritize performative gestures over substantive governance. - It reveals the absurdly low bar for what constitutes “legislative achievement” in an era of gridlock—naming a post office is apparently easier than passing a budget or reforming immigration. - It underscores the influence of local lobbying (likely from a historical society or chamber of commerce) in securing federal attention for trivial matters, while real issues languish. - It invites cynicism: if this is what passes for action, what does it say about the body’s capacity to address climate change, debt, or institutional decay?

In short, S. 4052 is not a law—it’s

Generated using Llama 3.1 70B (Dr. Haus personality)

💰 Campaign Finance Network

Sen. Schmitt, Eric [R-MO]

Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle

Total Contributions
$158,400
23 donors
PACs
$0
Organizations
$13,000
Committees
$0
Individuals
$145,400

No PAC contributions found

1
ELEVATE MISSOURI
2 transactions
$6,700
2
TURTLE MOUNTAIN BAND OF CHIPPEWA TRIBE
1 transaction
$2,900
3
PETER J SPALITTO DDS PC
1 transaction
$2,900
4
KIRKWOOD PLUMBING INC
1 transaction
$500

No committee contributions found

1
POPOLO, JOE
2 transactions
$13,200
2
WALTON, TROY
1 transaction
$11,600
3
PFAUTCH, ROY
1 transaction
$11,600
4
ROSS, DONALD
1 transaction
$10,000
5
TAYLOR, ANDREW
1 transaction
$6,600
6
TAYLOR, BARBARA
1 transaction
$6,600
7
KELSEY, J DAVID
1 transaction
$6,600
8
FOGEL, DAVID
1 transaction
$6,600
9
PALOMO, OSWALDO
1 transaction
$6,600
10
TAMASI, DAVID
1 transaction
$6,600
11
MCKNIGHT, ANDREW
1 transaction
$6,600
12
POPOLO, CHRIS
1 transaction
$6,600
13
ASHWORTH, CAROL
1 transaction
$6,600
14
ASHWORTH, JIMMY
1 transaction
$6,600
15
GIBBS, HALLIE H.
1 transaction
$6,600
16
GIDWITZ, RONALD J.
1 transaction
$6,600
17
STEWARD, DAVE
1 transaction
$6,600
18
MANDELBLATT, DANIELLE
1 transaction
$6,600
19
MANDELBLATT, ERIC
1 transaction
$6,600

Cosponsors & Their Campaign Finance

This bill has 1 cosponsors. Below are their top campaign contributors.

Sen. Hawley, Josh [R-MO]

ID: H001089

Top Contributors

24

1
R&W TOWING & RECOVERY
OrganizationST JOSEPH, MO
$3,300
Sep 18, 2024
2
SOUTHERN MISSOURI REAL ESTATE LLC
OrganizationAURORA, MO
$1,000
Jun 28, 2023
3
ST LOUIS CONSERVATIVE LEADERSHIP PAC
OrganizationCHESTERFIELD, MO
$914
Oct 31, 2024
4
MARK FAUGHN CONSTRUCTION LLC
OrganizationPOPLAR BLUFF, MO
$250
May 22, 2023
5
SCHELL, MARK CHRISTOPHER
DIAMOND PET FOOD • MANAGER
IndividualLOHMAN, MO
$13,200
Apr 13, 2023
6
CARR, GEORGE T.
THE DURHAM CO • MANAGEMENT
IndividualSPRINGFIELD, MO
$12,200
Apr 21, 2023
7
RUSSELL, DOUG MR.
DURHAM COMPANY • PRESIDENT
IndividualLEBANON, MO
$7,400
Apr 21, 2023
8
SHELTON, GREGORY P. MR.
SHELTON WHOLESALE • OWNER
IndividualEAGLEVILLE, MO
$6,600
Mar 11, 2024
9
WALDEN, MICHAEL
SHOOK HARDY BACON • ATTORNEY
IndividualMISSION HILLS, KS
$6,600
Mar 31, 2023
10
WILLARD, BRADLEY
WILLARD ASPHALT PAVING • PRESIDENT
IndividualLEBANON, MO
$6,600
Mar 31, 2023

Donor Network - Sen. Schmitt, Eric [R-MO]

PACs
Organizations
Individuals
Politicians

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Showing 52 nodes and 52 connections

Total contributions: $52

Top Donors - Sen. Schmitt, Eric [R-MO]

Showing top 23 donors by contribution amount

4 Orgs19 Individuals

Project 2025 Policy Matches

This bill shows semantic similarity to the following sections of the Project 2025 policy document.AI-enhanced analysis provides detailed alignment ratings.

Executive Office of the President of the United States

Weak
Vector: 52%
Pages: 90-92AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"The bill honors Edwin Hubble's astronomical legacy through a ceremonial postal designation, which loosely aligns with Project 2025's emphasis on space policy and scientific advancement, but does not implement or advance any specific space policy, regulatory reform, or R&D initiative outlined in the document."

Key themes:space sciencescientific recognitionastronomy

— 58 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise space policy reviews, legislative proposals, and regulatory reforms smoothly. The NSpC generally led on space issues within the EOP, but other White House offices also took on space topics. l As a member of the NSpC, and in coordination with other members, the Office of Science and Technology Policy developed a national space weather strategy, research and development (R&D) plans to mitigate the effects of orbital debris, and protocols for planetary protection to avoid biological contamination of celestial bodies. l The Council of Economic Advisers did research on the economic benefits of space property rights. l OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Reform updated and streamlined commercial launch licensing and commercial remote sensing satellite rules. During the Trump Administration, if a topic was purely military, such as stand- ing up the U.S. Space Command, the NSC took the lead. If a topic cut across military, civil, and commercial sectors, as was the case with cybersecurity in space, the NSpC and NSC would cochair the policy review groups. Trusted, collegial relationships across the White House complex are critical to successful space policy development, implementation, and oversight. Nowhere is this more important than in the relationship between the NSpC staff and OMB staff who oversee civil and national security–related space spending. Teamwork between the NSpC and OMB staff can communicate clear presidential priorities to departments and agencies, facilitating smooth development of the President’s budget request. The NSpC and OMB have many opportunities to collaborate in promoting presidential priorities while finding offsets in lower-priority programs and funding lines. OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICY (OSTP) The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was created by the National Science and Technology Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976.33 Before its creation, Presidents received their advice and counsel on such matters through advisers and boards that had no statutory authority. The Director of OSTP is one of the few Senate-confirmed positions within the Executive Office of the President. Consistent with other laws, the President may delegate to the Director of OSTP directive authority over other elements of the executive branch. Other EOP policy officials and organizations such as the NSC and NEC are formally only advisory with relevant agency directives issued by the President. — 59 — Executive Office of the President of the United States The OSTP’s functions, as contained in the law, are to advise the President of scientific and technological considerations, evaluate the effectiveness of the federal effort, and generally lead and coordinate the federal government’s R&D programs. If science is being manipulated at the agencies to support separate political and institutional agendas, the President should increase the prominence of the OSTP’s Director either formally or informally. This would elevate the role of science in policy discussions and subsequent outcomes and theoretically help to balance out agencies like the Departments of Energy, State, and Commerce and the Envi- ronmental Protection Agency and Council on Environmental Quality. The OSTP can also help to bring technical expertise to regulatory matters in support of OMB. The OSTP should continue to play a lead role in coordinating federal R&D pro- grams. Recent legislation, especially the CHIPS and Science Act,34 has expanded federal policy and funding across the enterprise, and there is a need for more sig- nificant leadership in this area both to ensure effectiveness and to avoid duplication of effort. As befitting its location in the White House, the OSTP must be concerned with advancing national interests and not merely the parochial concerns of depart- ments, agencies, or parts of the scientific community. During the Trump and Biden Administrations, there has been a bipartisan focus on prioritizing R&D funding around the so-called Industries of the Future (IOTF). Under President Trump, IOTF priorities were artificial intelligence (AI), quantum information science (QIS), advanced communications/5G, advanced manufacturing, and biotechnology. Under President Biden, this list has been expanded to include advanced materials, robotics, battery technology, cybersecurity, green products and clean technology, plant genetics and agricultural technologies, nanotechnology, and semiconductor and microelectronics technologies. These priorities should be eval- uated and narrowed to ensure consistency with the next Administration’s priorities. Given a long list of priorities, coordinating efforts across agencies and mea- suring success are extremely challenging. The OSTP and OMB are required to work together on an annual basis to prioritize the funding requests and whatever Congress adds on top of them, but there continues to be concern about mission creep and funds expended on nonscientific R&D. The President should also issue an executive order to reshape the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and related climate change research pro- grams. The USGCRP produces strategic plans and research (for example, the National Climate Assessment) that reduce the scope of legally proper options in presidential decision-making and in agency rulemakings and adjudications. Also, since much environmental policymaking must run the gauntlet of judicial review, USGCRP actions can frustrate successful litigation defense in ways that the career bureaucracy should not be permitted to control. The process for producing assess- ments should include diverse viewpoints. The OSTP and OMB should jointly assess the independence of the contractors used to conduct much of this outsourced

Department of Energy and Related Commissions

Minimal
Vector: 53%
Pages: 425-427AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"The bill is a ceremonial designation of a post office honoring astronomer Edwin P. Hubble, with no connection to Department of Energy R&D, technology transfer, national security, or scientific dominance objectives outlined in Project 2025."

Key themes:sciencetechnology

— 393 — Department of Energy and Related Commissions l Ensure that R&D funds are used for projects that protect and advance that edge. l Ensure that successful advances, with a focus on new natural resource development technologies, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and space, are transferred swiftly to American interests in the private sector. New Policies l Focus on benefits to Americans. OTT’s operations should be based on the recognition that the new technologies generated by American taxpayers’ investment in DOE are a significant national security asset rather than some neutral scientific gift to humanity. l Increase oversight and coordination. OTT needs to be vigilant in overseeing and coordinating OTT offices associated with each National Lab. For security and economic espionage reasons, the work funded by the American people needs to be protected, and when commercialized, it needs to go to American businesses. OFFICE OF SCIENCE (SC) Mission/Overview The Office of Science (SC) supports and oversees research facilities and pro- grams that cover basic science through its application to the demonstration and deployment of energy technologies. SC oversees 10 of the 17 DOE National Labs and 28 major federal research user facilities. Its mission is to preserve U.S. leader- ship in science, fund and perform basic research, and provide the scientific facilities that the private sector is unable or unwilling to provide. New initiatives include quantum information sciences and artificial intelligence. SC is led by a Senate-con- firmed Director at the Assistant Secretary level and has eight program offices.82 Needed Reforms The next conservative President should commit the United States to scientific dominance to support national and economic security, especially in light of similar efforts by China. To aid in this effort, the Office of Science should: l Return to its primary mission: nonpartisan and basic science. SC’s mission should be international leadership in basic and early applied science and provision of world-leading facilities for this work. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act mark the major — 394 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise reorientation of DOE primarily from defense applications in the NNSA and basic and early applied science across SC and the applied offices to a massive federal research, development, demonstration, and commercialization body.83 Distraction from SC’s basic science mission should be prevented. l Increase the level of accountability. The National Laboratories need to be more directly accountable to the Secretary of Energy and Congress for their work and management. New Policies l Commit to U.S. science dominance. The United States is losing its dominance in scientific discoveries and technological development. China and other adversaries have been stealing American science and technology for years and are now on the verge of dominating science—a development that is fraught with negative strategic and economic implications for the United States. The next Administration must commit itself to ensuring that the U.S. continues to dominate scientific discovery and technological advancement. l Refocus on mission and eliminate duplication and waste. The Administration should work with Congress to rationalize the National Lab network to meet specific national objectives (such as the NNSA laboratories’ role in national defense) and conduct basic research that the private sector would not otherwise conduct. Activities that duplicate those of other government agencies or the private sector should be eliminated. l Properly manage the National Labs’ contributions to the private sector. SC should improve private-sector access to the National Labs, through programs like the GAIN voucher program and consistent with national security considerations, while ensuring that the economic benefits of taxpayer-funded technologies flow back to taxpayers through patent- review sharing or a revolving fund. Budget The Office of Science was appropriated slightly more than $7 billion in FY 2021, and DOE requested slightly less than $7.8 billion for FY 2023.84 OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT (EM) Mission/Overview The Office of Environmental Management’s mission is to “complete the safe cleanup of [the] environmental legacy resulting from decades of nuclear

Department of Defense

Minimal
Vector: 52%
Pages: 149-151AI Enhanced

AI Analysis:

"The bill is a ceremonial designation of a post office honoring astronomer Edwin P. Hubble, with no connection to defense policy, military readiness, space force reforms, or any of the specific objectives outlined in the Project 2025 Department of Defense or U.S. Space Force sections."

— 117 — Department of Defense 2. Create better incentives to retain talented junior NCOs, especially in infantry and other critical military occupational specialties. 3. Reduce unnecessary deployments to increase dwell time in order to enable more robust primary military education. l Align Navy amphibious shipbuilding with Force Design 2030. The U.S. Navy has struggled for decades to maintain an amphibious fleet that could support USMC war plans around large-scale amphibious operations. In addition, amphibious shipbuilding has often had to compete against other priorities within a constrained budget and limited shipbuilding capacity. 1. Develop and produce light amphibious warships (LAWs) to support more distributed amphibious operations, especially in the Pacific.34 2. Maintain between 28 and 31 larger amphibious warships as opposed to the 25 specified in current Navy shipbuilding plans and the 38 specified before 2020.35 U.S. SPACE FORCE U.S. space forces conduct global space operations to sustain and enhance air, land, and sea effectiveness, lethality, and superiority by providing secure broad- band global communications (precision position, navigation, and timing accuracy); attack warning and threat tracking and targeting capability (real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance information); and their assured continuity of operations both by defending U.S. assets and by conducting offensive operations that are capable of imposing unacceptable losses on adversaries that might seek to attack them. The U.S. Space Force (USSF) was established to assure continuous global and theater combat support from space, to deter attacks against U.S. space assets, and to prevail in space should deterrence fail. The USSF posture was conceived as a balance of offensive and defensive deterrent capabilities designed for maximum effectiveness. Needed Reforms l Reverse the Biden Administration’s defensive posture. The Biden Administration has eliminated almost all offensive deterrence capabilities and instead will rely solely on defensive capabilities of disaggregation, maneuver, and reconstitution—the most costly, the slowest, and ultimately the most fragile architecture selection. — 118 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise 1. Reestablish offensive capabilities to guarantee a favorable balance of forces, efficiently manage the full deterrence spectrum, and seriously complicate enemy calculations of a successful first strike against U.S. space assets. 2. Restore architectural balance in U.S. space forces, both offensive and defensive, to restore deterrence dominance efficiently and quickly. 3. Rapidly expand space control capability, to include cis-lunar space (the region beginning at geosynchronous altitude and encompassing the moon), to provide early warning of an enemy attack. 4. Seek arms control and “rules of the road” understandings only when they are unambiguously in the interests of the U.S. and its allies, and prohibit their unilateral implementation. l Reduce overclassification. The USSF must move beyond the Cold War– era culture of secrecy and overclassification that surrounded military space to facilitate greater coordination and synchronization of efforts across the government and commercial sectors. Declassify appropriate information about terrestrial and on-orbit space capabilities that threaten the U.S. space constellation, as well as those being pursued by our competitors, to secure the principled right to counter them offensively. l Implement policies suited to a mature USSF. No longer a “newborn,” the USSF has entered its fourth year of existence, and the lessons learned can be incorporated across all facets of the force to increase its effectiveness. 1. Restructure from the current “unity of effort” structure to “unity of command.” 2. Lead the U.S. government’s development of a clear and unambiguous declaratory policy that the United States will operate at will in space and enforce these operations with capabilities that ensure effective deterrence and the ability to impose our will if necessary. 3. End the current study phase of concept development and issue necessary guidance for the development and fielding of offensive capabilities.

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Policy matches are calculated using a hybrid approach: initial candidates are found using semantic similarity between bill summaries and Project 2025 policy text, then an AI model (Llama 3.1 70B) provides detailed alignment ratings and analysis. Ratings range from 1 (minimal alignment) to 5 (very strong alignment). This analysis does not imply direct causation or intent.

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