A line was added to the bill prohibiting infringement on the D.C.

Eleanor Holmes Norton pledged to rally her fellow Democrats against the bill.įaced with opposition from District officials, staff from Poe’s, Cleaver’s and Norton’s offices began negotiating a compromise, and reached an agreement in spring of 2012. officials were outraged and said the move would tamper with the District’s memorial. But, when Poe introduced the two-site bill in 2011, D.C. In the 111th Congress, the Senate combined the bills to allow both sites to have a national distinction. Emanuel Cleaver II, D-Mo., introduced a competing bill to nationalize the WWI Memorial in Kansas City. (Buckles died in 2011.) He then introduced a bill to establish a national tribute on or near the existing D.C. residents who fought in the “War to End All Wars” and is located near the Korean War Memorial.Īfter meeting Frank Buckles, America’s last living WWI veteran, in 2008, Poe joined the effort for a national WWI memorial. Pershing, but the Texas Republican originally sought to have a memorial on the National Mall. Pershing Park was already designated as a WWI Memorial site and includes a statue of Army Gen. Ted Poe said in a recent phone interview.īut the spot in Pershing Park, an area on Pennsylvania Avenue adjacent to the White House, was not Poe’s first choice.

“Even though this process took longer than itself, I’m glad America is going to honor all of the folks that served,” Rep. and Congress, the provision says a WWI memorial should not infringe upon the existing D.C. And, in one line reflecting a heated tug-of-war between D.C. Roughly 1,400 pages into the 1,600-page document is a series of sections commemorating the 100th anniversary of “The Great War.” One section allows for “an appropriate structure or other commemorative elements” to honor World War I veterans in Pershing Park in D.C. Achieving approval to establish a national World War I memorial in the District of Columbia took longer than the war itself.Īfter six years of advocacy, the effort culminated in a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2014.

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