Sponsors (8)
The bill establishes modest, predictable federal grant support (including eligibility for tribal lands and territories) to build and repair memorials, but the high local match requirement, limited funding, and subjective prioritization limit access and may exclude contested or underrepresented memorials.
Local governments, nonprofits, and community groups can apply for federal grants (up to $100,000 each) under a program authorized at $2 million per year (FY2026–FY2030), creating predictable federal support for building or repairing community memorials.
Tribal governments and U.S. territories are explicitly eligible, allowing tribal lands and territorial communities access to the same federal memorial grants.
Veterans, police, firefighters, and their communities benefit from strengthened local commemorative spaces and recognition when projects are funded and completed.
Recipients must provide at least a 50% non‑Federal match, which can be a major financial strain and barrier for small towns and small nonprofits seeking to use the program.
The $100,000 per-grant cap combined with a $2 million annual authorization limits how many and how large projects can be funded, leaving many memorial projects unfunded or only partially funded.
Prioritizing memorials that are 'viewed to have contributed positively' risks excluding contested, controversial, or historically overlooked memorials, raising equity and representation concerns.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates an Interior Department grant program (up to $100K per grant) to fund construction, restoration, renovation, and maintenance of qualifying local memorials, with 50% non‑Federal match and $2M authorized annually for FY2026–2030.
Official title: To direct the Secretary of the Interior to establish a grant program to provide funding for memorials honoring veterans, law enforcement officers, and firefighters, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 30, 2025 by Claudia Tenney · Last progress June 30, 2025
Creates a new federal grant program at the Department of the Interior to help local governments and nonprofit organizations build, restore, renovate, and maintain memorials that honor veterans (service on or after April 6, 1917), service members killed on or after that date, law enforcement officers, and firefighters. Grants are limited to one per fiscal year per entity or memorial, capped at $100,000 each, require at least 50% non‑Federal matching funds, and the program is authorized $2 million per year for FY2026–FY2030; the Secretary must set up the program within six months of enactment. Applies to memorials owned or administered by units of local government or nonprofit organizations; establishes definitions, matching requirements, funding caps, and a short statutory timeline for program creation.