Rep. Don Beyer announced this week that he will introduce legislation taking aim at President Donald Trump’s proposed triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. The Arlington National Cemetery Viewshed Protection Act is a joint effort between Beyer and Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada.
The proposed 250-foot-tall arch would stand between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery. The Trump-appointed Commission of Fine Arts approved the designs last week.
Beyer said the arch “relies on illegal manipulations of funding without congressional authorization and violates the Commemorative Works Act.” The Commemorative Works Act (1986) requires congressional approval for memorial on federal land in or near Washington, DC.
The proposed legislation would:
- Explicitly prohibit construction of an arch in Lady Bird Johnson Park
- Prohibit the use of federal funds to build the arch
- Prohibit construction of an arch “or similarly-disruptive and non-Congressionally approved structures” on National Park Service lands in the DC area
“Arlington National Cemetery is sacred ground, the resting place for some of our nation’s greatest heroes. It is unthinkable that we would desecrate this hallowed space to build a monument to Donald Trump’s ego,” Beyer said in a news release. “Trump’s vanity project would waste taxpayer money, brazenly violate existing law, and become yet another vehicle for his corruption.”
Traffic Concerns
Beyer has also raised concerns over how the arch would impact traffic. He sent a letter to Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Acting Director of the National Park Service Jessica Bowron to ask for more transparency about traffic problems.
Beyer’s letter expressed “grave concerns” about the project’s traffic impacts and asked the officials to release copies of their plans for dealing with the transportation disruption.
“With the size of the project and the site’s location between Arlington Memorial Bridge and Arlington National Cemetery, the proposed construction would have significant traffic impacts on my Northern Virginia constituents,” he wrote.
Feature image courtesy the Commission of Fine Arts/Harrison Design
