The Peace Corps Commemorative is a proposed national commemorative work in Washington, D.C. honoring the historic founding of the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an Independent agency of the U.S. government, independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to communities in partner countries around the world. It was established in Marc ...

and the enduring American ideals that motivated its founding and are expressed in Peace Corps service. The

is a volunteer-sending program run by the United States government. Congress authorized the Peace Corps Commemorative in January 2014.

Background about the commemorative

The Peace Corps program was established by

Executive Order In the United States, an executive order is a directive by the president of the United States that manages operations of the federal government. The legal or constitutional basis for executive orders has multiple sources. Article Two of the ...

10924, which was issued by President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

on March 1, 1961. The program was legislatively authorized by Congress on September 21, 1961, with passage of the Peace Corps Act (Pub.L. 87–293). Between 1961 and 2013, over 215,000 Americans joined the Peace Corps. The

National Peace Corps Association National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) is a North American nonprofit organization supporting the Peace Corps Agency community. Founded in 1979, the NPCA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States The NPCA maintains a database compris ...

, a nonprofit organization for Peace Corps alumni, established the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation to advocate for a commemorative to honor the mission of the Peace Corps and the values on which it was founded.

Previous commemorative legislative efforts

Legislation to establish a Peace Corps commemorative was first introduced in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

by Representative

Sam Farr Samuel Sharon Farr (born July 4, 1941) is an American politician who was the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for California's 17th congressional district, California's 17th (1993–2013) and California's 20th congre ...

( D-

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

), a former Peace Corps volunteer, on December 3, 2009. Although the legislation passed the House, it was never adopted in the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

and died at the end of the

111th United States Congress The 111th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government from January 3, 2009, until January 3, 2011. It began during the last weeks of the George W. Bush administration, with t ...

on December 22, 2010. On March 1, 2011, Farr introduced H.R.854, essentially the same legislation, in the House of Representatives. The bill never made it out of committee. In the Senate,

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

Rob Portman Robert Jones Portman (born December 19, 1955) is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Ohio from 2011 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, Portman was the 35th director of the Office of Management ...

( R-

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

) introduced S.1421, companion legislation lacking the "findings of Congress" statement in the House bill. S.1421 passed the Senate on December 30, 2012, but was never acted on by the House. It died at the end of the

112th United States Congress The 112th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2011, until January 3, 2013. It convened in Washington, D.C., on January 3, 2011, and ended on January 3, 2013, 17 ...

on January 3, 2013.

Successful commemorative legislative effort

Joseph P Kennedy III in Dominican Republic

Under the Commemorative Works Act of 1986, new memorials and monuments were banned on federal lands within the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region unless they received congressional authorization and passed through a lengthy and stringent site, design, and construction approval process. In early 2013,

Ohio Governor The governor of Ohio is the head of government of Ohio and the commander-in-chief of the U.S. state's Ohio National Guard, military forces. The officeholder has a duty to enforce state laws, the power to either approve or veto bill (proposed law ...

Bob Taft Robert Alphonso Taft III (born January 8, 1942) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 67th governor of Ohio from 1999 to 2007. A member of the Taft family, Taft political dynasty and Republican Party (United States), Republic ...

(R), a former Peace Corps volunteer, asked Senator Portman to again sponsor legislation authorizing a Peace Corps Commemorative. The legislation, S.230, was co-sponsored by Senator

Mark Udall Mark Emery Udall ( ; born July 18, 1950) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Colorado from 2009 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the United States House of Representatives, repres ...

(D-

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

) and introduced into the Senate on February 7, 2013. It was favorably reported by the

Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources The United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is a standing committee of the United States Senate. It has jurisdiction over matters related to energy and mineral resources, including nuclear development; irrigation and recl ...

on April 22, 2013, and adopted with

unanimous consent In parliamentary procedure, unanimous consent, also known as general consent, or in the case of the parliaments under the Westminster system, leave of the house (or leave of the senate), is a situation in which no member present objects to a propo ...

by the Senate on June 19, 2013. Companion legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives on February 28, 2013, by Representative

Joseph P. Kennedy III Joseph Patrick Kennedy III (born October 4, 1980) is an American politician and diplomat who most recently served as the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland from 2022 to 2024. Prior to this, Kennedy served as the U.S. representative ...

(D-

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

), a former Peace Corps volunteer and grand-nephew of President Kennedy. It was the first congressional bill sponsored by Kennedy. The legislation (H.R.915) was co-sponsored by Representatives Farr,

Tom Petri Thomas Evert Petri (born May 28, 1940) is an American politician who was the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for from 1979 to 2015; he is a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party. Early lif ...

(R-

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

Mike Honda Michael Makoto Honda (, born June 27, 1941) is an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in Congress from 2001 to 2017. Initially involved in education in California, he first became active in politics in 1971, when t ...

(D-California), and

John Garamendi John Raymond Garamendi ( ; born January 24, 1945) is an American businessman, politician and member of the Democratic Party who has represented areas of Northern California between San Francisco and Sacramento, including the cities of Fairfiel ...

(D-California)—all former Peace Corps volunteers. It was favorably reported by the

House Committee on Natural Resources The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources or Natural Resources Committee (often referred to as simply Resources) is a Congressional committee of the United States House of Representatives. Originally called the Committee on Interior and Ins ...

and the House Committee on the Budget on January 23, 2104. H.R.915 differed from S.230 only in including a 10-point section on the "findings of Congress". To ensure swift passage of the legislation, the House moved to adopt the Senate bill rather than reconcile the two pieces of legislation in a

conference committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

. S.230 was approved by the House, 387-to-7, on January 13, 2014. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

signed the legislation into law on January 24, 2014 (Public Law 113-78).

About the final commemorative legislation

P.L. 113-78 is titled "Memorial to Commemorate America's Commitment to International Service and Global Prosperity". Section 1 of the Act authorizes the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation to oversee the commemorative's design and construction, and allows it to be built on federally owned land in the

District of Columbia Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

and nearby areas. The memorial shall "commemorate the mission of the Peace Corps and the ideals on which the Peace Corps was founded." Section 1 also requires the commemorative work to be established under the procedures of the Commemorative Works Act. No federal funds may be used to design or build the commemorative (a requirement imposed on all monuments, memorials, and statues since the mid-20th century), and the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation is authorized to solicit contributions for the cost of design and construction of the commemorative. (Excess funds are to be deposited with the

United States Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current U.S. government departments. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and ...

.) Section 2 of the Act required the legislation to comply with the

Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 The Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, Title I of , is a public law passed by the 111th United States Congress and signed by US President Barack Obama on February 12, 2010. The act reinstated pay-as-you-go budgeting rules used in Congress from ...

Siting and design of the commemorative

Under the procedures established by the Commemorative Works Act (as amended), the site for any monument, memorial, or statue to be built on federal land in the D.C. region must be approved by the

National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission The National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for approving and siting memorials within Washington, D.C., and the D.C. metropolitan area. Previously known as the National Capi ...

(NCMAC). On May 6, 2014, the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation (PCCF) submitted a preliminary site report to the NCMAC. The PCCF argued that the monument must be close to the "monumental core" (National Mall and its immediate environs) of Washington, D.C. It evaluated 16 different empty sites near the monumental core, and rejected 12 of them as being too distant from other monuments and memorials. It short-listed four sites: *A trapezoidal site at the eastern edge of Georgetown bounded by

Rock Creek Park Rock Creek Park is a large urban park that bisects the Northwest, Washington, D.C., Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. Created by Act of Congress in 1890, the park comprises 1,754 acres (2.74 mi2, 7.10 km2), generally along Rock Cr ...

Pennsylvania Avenue NW Pennsylvania Avenue is a primarily diagonal street in Washington, D.C. that connects the United States Capitol with the White House and then crosses northwest Washington, D.C. to Georgetown. Traveling through southeast Washington from the C ...

, 26th Street NW, and M Street NW. *Two triangular sites bounded by H Street NW, 18th Street NW, and 19th Street NW. Pennsylvania Avenue NW runs northwest through the area, defining the two sites. These sites are north of the headquarters of the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...

, and the northeastern site is currently Edward R. Murrow Park. *A triangular site bounded by Louisiana Avenue NW, 1st Street NW, and C Street NW. This site is adjacent to Upper Senate Park, and is a half-block southwest of the Memorial to Japanese-American Patriotism in World War II. It is currently Vincent R. Sombrotto Memorial Park. The PCCF asked the NCMAC to approve the Louisiana Avenue site. In November 2014, the National Park Service recommended that the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) approve the Louisiana Avenue site for the commemorative. Although the smallest site (less than a quarter of an acre), it scored the highest on a Park Service ranking. The site was opposed by

Advisory Neighborhood Commission Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs) are bodies of local government in the District of Columbia, the capital city of the United Statesdistrict. The ANC system was created in 1974 through a referendum (73 percent voted "yes") in the District of ...

6C, which cited the loss of green space. The recommendation was submitted for the NCPC's December 2014 meeting. Since 2015, the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation has solicited, received and reviewed hundreds of design concept proposals for the Louisiana Avenue site. Many competing architects, landscape architects, and artists have been given detailed briefs and RFPs describing the aesthetic and interpretive goals for this commemorative work, as well as site information. A definitive specific design approach was developed by the PCCF design team for federal agency reviews and approvals in 2019-2020. On September 17, 2020, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts unanimously approved the proposed design concept.

References

External links

* : Public Law 113-78, establishing the monument
Peace Corps Park
contains information on the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation and the 2015 design competition it conducted. {{authority control Proposed monuments and memorials in the United States National Park Service areas in Washington, D.C. Monuments and memorials in Washington, D.C.