Ernst: “The time is now to get the Global War on Terrorism Memorial built on our National Mall.”
A Senate Democrat once again blocked the Iowa senator’s bill to create a memorial on the National Mall to those who served in our nation’s longest war.
WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who commanded 150 troops during Operation Iraqi Freedom and is the first female combat veteran to serve in the U.S. Senate, once again took to the Senate floor to pass her bipartisan effort to build a new memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. to honor the troops who served during the Global War on Terrorism. After Ernst noted she had spoken with nearly 30 Gold Star families earlier this week who lost their loved ones during our nation’s longest war and support the effort, a Senate Democrat blocked the bill for the second time.
Click here or on the image above to watch Ernst’s remarks.
Background:
Last week, a Senate Democrat
opposed Ernst’s attempt to unanimously pass this bill that has the support of both Republicans and Democrats. After the bipartisan bill was blocked, Ernst
joined Senator Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation President/CEO Marina Jackman, and Gold Star wife Jane Horton for a press conference calling on Congress to pass their bill.
In 2017, through
bipartisan legislation, Ernst helped create the Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation, a private foundation, to begin the process of pursuing the construction of a memorial. Last Congress and again earlier this year, Ernst and Hassan introduced the
Global War on Terrorism Memorial Location Act, which proposed three locations for the memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Earlier this month, Ernst
wrote a column highlighting the importance of creating a Global War on Terrorism Memorial on our National Mall, especially after the disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan that’s left Americans and our allies stranded behind Taliban lines. This effort has the
support of the six surviving secretaries of defense—spanning Democratic and Republican Administrations—who led the Defense Department during the past 20 years of the Global War on Terrorism.
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