Why It Matters
Congress has authorized 48 works under the Commemorative Works Act (CWA) since 1986, and 25 are complete, according to a new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. The other works are in progress, have lapsed authorizations or had their authorizations repealed.
The CWA requires congressional approval of memorial locations on land run by the National Park Service and the General Services Administration. The last completed work the report lists is the Desert Shield and Desert Storm Memorial, which was dedicated on Oct. 24 in Area I.
The Big Picture
The CWA created a statutory process to ensure that future works "are appropriately designed, constructed, and located" and "reflect a consensus of the lasting significance of the subjects involved." It divides covered land into three zones. Area I is for works of "preeminent historical and lasting significance," Area II for "subjects of lasting historical significance" and the Reserve for the Mall's cross-axis, where new siting is prohibited.
Congress created the Reserve in 2003 through Public Law 108-126, the enactment of H.R. 1442, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Visitor Center Act. Several works first authorized for Area I, including the World War II Memorial and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, now sit in the Reserve.
Sponsors get seven years to dedicate a memorial. Congress can extend that window by amending the authorizing statute, and the secretary of the interior or the administrator of general services can extend it administratively by issuing a construction permit.
Two completed works have since left CWA jurisdiction. The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2020 moved the Women in Military Service for America Memorial and the American Armored Force Memorial to the Department of the Army. The Air Force Memorial was built at the Arlington Naval Annex, outside the Act's areas.
Authorizations come through ordinary legislation. H.R. 562 authorized the government of Ukraine to build a memorial honoring victims of the 1932-1933 famine, and it became Public Law 109-340 on Oct. 13, 2006.
The report cites H.R. 1088, the First Infantry Recognition of Sacrifice in Theater Act, in its section on the First Division Monument. The monument's plaques honoring the First Infantry Division's dead from Operation Desert Storm and later operations were authorized in Public Law 116-283. The House passed H.R. 1088, and the Senate referred it to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on Nov. 21, 2019.
The Bottom Line
Works still in progress carry the same seven-year window and the same two extension routes. The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial took a series of statutory extensions before its Sept. 18, 2020 dedication. Any work that runs past its window needs administrative action or a new act of Congress to continue.
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