Norton Protects Walter Reed and D.C. War Memorial from Federal Interference in Defense Bill, Bill Heads to President

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today said that the final fiscal year 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), now heading to President Obama's desk for his signature, protects the District of Columbia from further federal interference at the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) and the D.C. War Memorial, as she requested.

Following long negotiations with the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Norton got compromise language in the NDAA for the old Armed Forces Institute of Pathology Building and its attachments (Pathology Building) to go to a public health entity, like Children's National Medical Center (Children's), if negotiations between the Army and the State Department fail. Norton also was instrumental in ensuring that at least 67 acres of the 110 acre WRAMC site will be occupied by the District of Columbia. She supported language in the original House-passed NDAA to authorize the transfer of the Pathology Building to Children's National, which desires to use the state-of-the-art lab space for research on children's health. However, the State Department wanted to demolish this space at a cost of up to $20 million for use sometime in the future when it can get funding. Norton objected, particularly considering that the State Department reportedly was seeking the Pathology Building and the rest of the land for free in violation of federal laws, and wanted 13 acres of D.C. land if Children's got the Pathology Building portion. In the end, Norton was able to keep D.C. whole with the full 67 acres.

The final NDAA also re-designates Pershing Park as a national World War I Memorial, laying to rest any possible nationalization of D.C.'s War Memorial. Norton is an original cosponsor of the Pershing Park re-designation bill, which was introduced by Congressmen Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO) and Ted Poe (R-TX) in a compromise to re-designate Pershing Park, a federal park in the District, as a national "World War I Memorial" and to preserve the D.C. War Memorial for D.C. veterans only. Norton fought attempts to nationalize the D.C. War Memorial as the national World War I memorial, while also working to create a national World War I memorial in the District. Norton and her colleagues previously agreed that the D.C. War Memorial would remain dedicated exclusively to D.C. veterans, and that they would continue to work together to pursue a number of other options for a national World War I memorial in the District, and to re-designate the Liberty Memorial of Kansas City, Missouri as the "National World War I Museum and Memorial." The NDAA accomplishes these goals.

"These two provisions in the NDAA strengthen the integrity of the city's land and memorials and remove future congressional interference," Norton said.