The Obama administration on Tuesday signaled that it opposes legislation on Capitol Hill to convert the District’s World War I memorial into a national monument — for now.
Peter May, a National Park Service official, told a House subcommittee that the Department of the Interior has “serious concerns” about the proposal, which would rededicate the District of Columbia War Memorial as the District of Columbia and National World War I Memorial. May noted, though, that the administration’s opposition isn’t absolute and said the Interior Department “would like to work with the committee to address our concerns.”
The plan as written, May said, would violate a federal law that governs memorials in D.C.
“Superimposing another subject on an existing memorial, particularly if new features are added, is an encroachment prohibited by the Commemorative Works Act,” May said in additional written testimony.
A prominent advocate of rededication told the panel, though, that May and the Park Service are wrong.
“That act prohibits the location of any new commemorative works on the Mall,” said Edwin Fountain, a director of the World War I Memorial Foundation. “However, H.R. 938 does not authorize a new commemorative work, but rather the rededication and enhancement of a memorial that already exists on the Mall.”
D.C. officials have characterized the measure as an insult to the District and another example of excessive congressional intervention in the city’s affairs.
“We are going to fight congressional bullying of every variety whenever it rears its ugly head,” D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said Monday. “It appears that for Republicans in the House, denying representation is simply not enough. They have moved on to appropriating — or trying to appropriate — a memorial to our war dead.”
But Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, the bill’s sponsor in the House, said he’s not taking a legislative slap at D.C. or its memorial.
“It’s not an insult,” Poe told The Washington Examiner. “It’s to honor D.C. veterans, but also to be inclusive.”
Poe also argued that the District should be mindful that the National Mall is a shared treasure.
“The National Mall is for all Americans, not just one section of the country,” he said.
Fountain said he thinks the legislation would help the District to further honor the 499 D.C. residents who died in World War I combat.
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“It will bring attention to the memorial by elevating it to the same status enjoyed by the surrounding war memorials,” said Fountain, who described the lack of a national World War I memorial along the Mall as “a glaring omission [and] all the more so because the centennial of the war is less than three years away.”
The subcommittee that considered the measure on Tuesday did not vote on the proposal. A committee spokeswoman said the full panel could vote on the bill at a later date, but that the bill’s next step was still to be determined.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is also considering a similar bill.
