Biden signs Baldwin bill to build Women’s Suffrage National Monument on the National Mall | The Wisconsin Independent
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Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin talks about her victory over Republican challenger Eric Hovde, Nov. 7, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

In one of his final acts as president, Joe Biden signed the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Location Act into law on Jan. 4. The legislation, sponsored by Colorado Democrat Joe Neguse in the House of Representatives and Wisconsin Democrat Tammy Baldwin in the Senate, authorizes a new monument on the National Mall honoring the women’s suffrage movement and its successful efforts to pass the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the right to vote.

Baldwin, who shepherded the bipartisan proposal through the Senate with Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn, celebrated its signing in a Jan. 6 press release: “Women’s right to vote and have their voices heard was not given, it was hard fought for by generations of women, locking arm in arm in the struggle for a more just country. It’s our job to ensure that these women and the fight for this fundamental right is remembered and honored. After years of work with my Democratic and Republican colleagues, I am proud that our bill is now the law of the land – putting a monument to honor the suffragists and the fight for women’s right to vote in its rightful place for the world to see, on the National Mall. Wisconsin has been at the forefront of the fight for women’s rights as it was the first state to ratify the 19th Amendment, and I am proud to be continuing this long and proud tradition.”

“Yesterday, I was proud to sign into law the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Location Act, authorizing the placement of a monument honoring the women’s suffrage movement on the National Mall,” Biden said in a Jan. 5 statement. “In addition to commemorating the ratification of the 19th Amendment, the Women’s Suffrage National Monument will recognize the generations of women who fought to ensure an equal voice for women in our democracy and honor the leaders who fought for the enfranchisement of all women long after the 19th Amendment was ratified.”

According to the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation, which was authorized to lead the project by a December 2020 act of Congress, none of the 40 existing statues, monuments, and memorials on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., are dedicated to American women’s history. While the 2020 law began the process of building a monument on federal land in the District of Columbia, the additional legislation was necessary to locate that monument on the Mall. 

The legislation passed in November 2024 in the House and in December in the Senate, both on voice votes.

The foundation will now work to choose a specific location and to raise the required funds for construction. “Constitution Gardens – the area of the National Mall centrally located between the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Reflecting Pool, and the White House – is the preferred location for the new memorial,” the group said in a Jan. 5 press release.

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