A Congressional committee nixed funding for the planned Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in next year’s budget, raising concerns that controversies over the memorial’s design were taking a toll on Capitol Hill.
“[The] decision to suspend funding for the proposed Eisenhower Memorial reflects a growing public concern over this controversial project,” said University of Miami architecture lecturer and author Sam Roche. “It shows that objections to the memorial’s content, size, and selection process are being heard. Suspension of funding is not a routine step toward approval, but rather an indication that the [Eisenhower Memorial] Commission should reconsider its efforts to force through its preferred design over mounting opposition.”
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies on Tuesday did not include any additional funding for the Eisenhower Memorial Commission in its 2013 appropriations bill. The commission had requested nearly $60 million.
A Senate committee has earlier approved funding for the memorial commission. That means the two committees will have to hammer out a compromise, a process likely to leave the commission with less than it sought.
The Eisenhower Memorial’s design by famed architect Frank Gehry has come under fire over the last year as opponents — including members of the Eisenhower family — derided the design as too expensive to maintain and for failing to emphasize Eisenhower’s accomplishments as a president and World War II general.
The Washington Examiner reported last month that the commission was still taking a vote via email on the memorial’s design, in hopes of announcing approval on June 6, the anniversary of D-Day. However that vote never resulted in an official tally and no announcement has been made.
