SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Mount Rushmore is being threatened. That’s the opinion of South Dakota’s lone U.S. House of Representatives member. Representative Dusty Johnson wants to make sure the monument is not changed in any way.

For the last several years, Representative Dusty Johnson has been trying to pass the Mount Rushmore Protection Act. So far, his efforts have failed, with previous bills dying in committee. However, Johnson is hoping this year he can get enough support to turn the bill into law.

“When Nancy Pelosi was speaker of the house admittedly my bill did not face very good prospects, but we’ve got a new sheriff in town Republicans are in charge of the house and I am getting a lot of interest on my bill. We are building some momentum and I’m hopeful we can get some progress yet this year,” said Johnson.

Tom Hanson: Is there a real threat?

“I think when you’ve got prominent elected leaders, when you have NBA players who are going out talking about this, it is something we need to pay attention to. The worst thing we could do is ignore these threats to cancel out Rushmore, let them build momentum, let them grow in threat until they have a head of steam,” said Johnson.

The bill would prevent Mount Rushmore from being renamed or altered in any way. Some supporters point to the 2015 renaming of Mt. Mckinley in Alaska to Denali at the request of native Alaskans.

Donald Trump supporters floated the idea of adding his face to the mountain, a move Trump endorsed on Twitter but he also said the Monument should never be “desecrated”.

Johnson says his goal is to protect the shrine of democracy for generations to come.

“Last few years, we have seen a number of prominent voices, unfortunately, call for Mount Rushmore to be altered or, in some cases, destroyed. I get it. These four presidents were not perfect men. They were flawed like we all are, but they still represent the very best of this country, and for those folks who think they are going to use federal dollars to blast the faces off Mount Rushmore, my bill tells them absolutely not. If you want to add Barack Obama’s face to Mount Rushmore, too bad, my bill is going to make it real clear that you can’t do that,” said Johnson.