This bill directs that the commemorative work authorized under Public Law 117‑80 for the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation may be sited within the National Mall Reserve — specifically in close proximity to the Lincoln Memorial — by creating an exception to a location restriction in federal law. It keeps the rest of the Commemorative Works Act framework in place.
That carve‑out is significant because the Reserve is the most protected and visible portion of the Mall. By singling out the Medal of Honor memorial for special placement, the bill both resolves the Foundation’s siting uncertainty and creates a statutory precedent for locating high‑profile commemoratives inside an area that is usually off‑limits to new memorials.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill creates a statutory exception to 40 U.S.C. 8908(c), allowing the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation’s commemorative work to be placed within the Reserve (as defined at 40 U.S.C. 8902(a)). Except for that location exception, the Commemorative Works Act (chapter 89 of title 40) continues to govern review, design, and approval.
Who It Affects
Directly affected parties include the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation, federal planning and review bodies that administer Mall memorials (e.g., the National Park Service, Commission of Fine Arts, and other review authorities under the Commemorative Works Act), Medal of Honor recipients and families, and Mall visitors and educators.
Why It Matters
The Reserve is the Mall’s most protected planning zone; authorizing a memorial there alters long‑standing siting constraints and could change how future congressional memorial exceptions are handled. For professionals, the bill shifts a technical siting question into statute while leaving design and approval mechanics in the hands of established review bodies.
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What This Bill Actually Does
Public Law 117‑80 previously authorized the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation to establish a commemorative work on Federal land in Washington, D.C., but it did not lock in a specific high‑profile site. This bill fills that gap by naming the Reserve — the centrally planned and tightly controlled portion of the National Mall — as an allowable site for the Foundation’s memorial and emphasizes proximity to the Lincoln Memorial in its findings.
The operative mechanism is a narrow statutory override. The bill expressly says that, notwithstanding 40 U.S.C. 8908(c) (the provision that generally restricts siting of new commemorative works within the Reserve), the Foundation’s commemorative work may be located in that Reserve.
It then clarifies that all other requirements and procedures established by the Commemorative Works Act still apply to this project.Practically, that means the Foundation will still move through the familiar set of technical reviews — design consultations, aesthetic and environmental reviews where applicable, and approvals administered under the Commemorative Works Act — but the pool of legally available sites now includes Reserve parcels that would otherwise be excluded. The bill does not itself set a precise footprint, appropriate placement relative to existing memorials, or who will fund construction or long‑term maintenance.Because the text ties the authorization to an organization (the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation) and to an earlier statute, the change applies only to this memorial and does not amend the broader statutory restriction for other potential commemoratives.
The finding language highlights Hershel “Woody” Williams and frames the memorial as a continuation of Lincoln’s legacy, signaling Congressional intent about the memorial’s symbolic placement even though those findings do not define legal siting criteria beyond the Reserve exception.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill creates an explicit exception to 40 U.S.C. 8908(c) so the National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation’s commemorative work may be located within the Reserve (40 U.S.C. 8902(a)).
Aside from that exception, the bill leaves chapter 89 of title 40 (the Commemorative Works Act) fully in force for this project, preserving the standard review and approval pathway.
The bill ties the location authorization to the Foundation’s prior authorization in Public Law 117‑80 rather than creating a new, general memorial authorization.
The findings single out Hershel “Woody” Williams (the last World War II Medal of Honor recipient) and state a Congressional preference for siting the memorial in close proximity to the Lincoln Memorial within the Reserve.
The text contains no appropriation or authorization of federal construction funds and does not specify responsibility for construction costs or long‑term maintenance.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Short title
Establishes the bill’s short title as the Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams National Medal of Honor Monument Location Act. This is a formal naming provision that signals the bill’s purpose and anchors the subsequent findings and authorization to a named memorial project.
Congressional findings about the Medal of Honor and Hershel Williams
Lists historical and symbolic findings: the 2021 authorization (Public Law 117‑80), the Medal of Honor’s origins and national significance, the declining number of living recipients, and Hershel Williams’s role as the last World War II recipient. Findings do not create operative legal requirements, but they frame Congressional intent and may influence how reviewing agencies interpret the bill’s exception and select an appropriate site near the Lincoln Memorial.
Site exception — placement within the Reserve
Imposes the substantive change: despite the restriction in 40 U.S.C. 8908(c), the Foundation’s commemorative work may be located within the Reserve (as that term is defined in 40 U.S.C. 8902(a)). This is a narrow, project‑specific override of the usual statutory prohibition on new commemorative works in much of the Reserve.
Preserves the Commemorative Works Act review framework
Makes clear that, except for the location exception in subsection (a), the Commemorative Works Act governs the project. In practice that means the Foundation must still comply with the procedural and substantive requirements of chapter 89 of title 40 — such as design reviews, agency consultations, and other site approval steps — even though site eligibility has been expanded for this memorial.
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Explore Veterans in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation — Gains statutory clearance to propose sites within the most prominent portion of the Mall, resolving a primary legal barrier to a high‑visibility location.
- Medal of Honor recipients and families — Obtain a high‑profile, symbolically placed national memorial intended to honor recipients’ service and to raise public awareness.
- Museum visitors and civic educators — Stand to benefit from a centrally located memorial that may draw larger audiences and increase educational programming opportunities on the Mall.
- Advocacy and veteran organizations supporting the memorial — Receive a significant legislative endorsement that can assist fundraising and public engagement efforts by reducing siting uncertainty.
Who Bears the Cost
- National Park Service and Mall stewardship agencies — Face added workload for review, permitting, integration into the Mall landscape, and potential long‑term stewardship obligations tied to a new Reserve memorial.
- Design review bodies (e.g., Commission of Fine Arts, National Capital Planning Commission) — Must adjudicate a high‑visibility siting decision and balance competing design and preservation mandates under tight public scrutiny.
- National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation (financial responsibility) — Although the bill clears siting obstacles, the Foundation remains responsible for fundraising, construction costs, and any obligations under the Commemorative Works Act, since the bill does not appropriate federal construction funds.
- Preservation and landscape stakeholders — May bear the cost of compromised planning objectives or altered Mall vistas if the Reserve’s historical planning principles are modified to accommodate this memorial.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central dilemma is between honoring Medal of Honor recipients with the highest‑visibility placement on the Reserve and preserving the Reserve’s statutory protection and planned landscape integrity; the bill resolves the siting question in favor of commemoration but at the cost of creating a statutory exception that could weaken long‑standing protections and complicate Mall stewardship and equity among memorial causes.
The bill accomplishes a single, narrow legal task — it opens the Reserve as a possible site for the Foundation’s memorial while leaving the Commemorative Works Act in place — but that narrowness creates outsized questions. The most immediate practical issue is definitional: the text references ‘close proximity to the Lincoln Memorial’ in its findings but does not define proximity or allocate specific parcels, leaving site selection to the existing review process.
That ambiguity could produce contentious negotiations among agencies, design reviewers, and interested public groups.
A second set of trade‑offs concerns precedent and stewardship. The Reserve is the Mall’s most protected planning zone; creating a project‑specific exception risks encouraging similar carve‑outs for other causes and makes future Mall planning decisions more politically fraught.
Finally, because the bill contains no funding language, construction and long‑term maintenance responsibilities remain unsettled; the Foundation will likely need to demonstrate private funding and negotiate maintenance arrangements, but federal agencies may still inherit stewardship costs if the memorial becomes part of the Mall’s permanent fabric.
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