President Donald Trump signed a bill led by Utah Rep. Blake Moore while meeting with Republicans during the party’s first-ever midterm convention in Dallas, tying a bow on a bipartisan legislative effort that has spanned two presidential administrations.
Flanked by Moore and past recipients of the award, Trump on Thursday signed the Hershel “Woody” Williams National Medal of Honor Monument Location Act into law, paving the way for a new monument to be constructed on the National Mall. The bill designates a location near the Lincoln Memorial for a new monument recognizing Medal of Honor recipients, a yearslong bipartisan effort headed by Moore and Democratic Rep. Marc Veasey of Texas.
“If you look at the stories and the vignettes about these Medal of Honor recipients, they impacted a lot of people,” Moore told the Deseret News. “One person’s act of valor will impact many, many more service members, and I get to be a part of honoring that. I think that’s a really cool thing to be a part of, and I’m super humbled by the fact that I got to engage with and even socialize and get to know so many of our current Medal of Honor recipients.”
The bill dictates the monument be located in what is known as “the Reserve” on the National Mall, an area partially stretching from the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial that was initially created to ban the construction of a new monument or museums.
The monument will be created close to the Lincoln Memorial to recognize the “enduring legacy” of President Abraham Lincoln, who awarded the first Medals of Honor in 1863. The bill’s namesake, Hershel Williams, was the last living World War II Medal of Honor recipient, who died in 2022.
“The motivation is to put it near the Lincoln Memorial because Abraham Lincoln established the Medal of Honor, and it was during the Civil War,” Moore said. “I think it deserves a nice spot on the mall, and hopefully we can finalize that next phase and get it going, get construction going on it sooner than later.”
The effort to establish a new national monument began shortly after Moore was first elected to the House in 2021. As a member of both the Armed Services Committee, which oversees the nation’s military, and the Natural Resources Committee, which oversees the national park system, it created the perfect storm for Moore to get involved.
“It was a mixture of committee assignments with just a general appreciation for what our servicemen and women have done, and all the right things fell into place,” Moore said.
Congress passed a bill that year approving the creation of the monument itself, which was passed unanimously by both parties and signed by then-President Joe Biden.
The bill signed on Thursday by Trump formally approves the physical location of the monument.
“We’re going to get you the best site in all of Washington,” Trump said in remarks at the National Medal of Honor Museum on Thursday.
The project still needs to be approved by the National Park Service, which will determine the exact location. After that, the monument must be designed and constructed before it’s available to the public.
The timeline of when the monument will be completed is not yet clear.
Trump signed the bill on the sidelines of the Republican midterm convention, where the president is slated to give closing remarks on Thursday night. He gave the keynote address during the first night of the event on Wednesday.
The Medal of Honor is the highest award recognizing military valor in action. Fewer than 4,000 military members have been awarded the designation out of more than 40 million individuals serving in the Armed Forces since the Civil War.
Only 65 Medal of Honor recipients are alive today.