Lawmakers are updating bipartisan efforts to inflate the Women’s History Museum at the National Mall.
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Washington – At the party’s intersection in a rare congressional effort, Democrats and GOP lawmakers are seeking funding for the new Women’s History Museum in the National Mall, which will be participating in a museum celebrating African-American and Native American history.
Supporters of the Smithsonian American Museum of Women’s History said it was important to have a place to showcase the important roles of women in the United States.
“The history of our country was shaped by powerful, pioneering women whose stories deserve to be told,” Florida Rep. Cat Cammack, co-chairman of the Republican Women’s Caucus, said in a statement.
Members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus and the Republican Women’s Caucus sent a letter on July 21, urging the Congressional Committee to help fund the museum.
The effort faces major hurdles, including a Trump administration campaign to eliminate diversity initiatives and pushing for a significant reduction in federal spending by Republican Congressional leaders.
“It feels like an absolute, difficult effort to make people remember that we are still fighting for this,” Michigan Democrat Hillary Scholten told USA Today.
A bipartisan effort: “Really unique”
Republican and Democrat lawmakers, including Rep. Carolyn Maloney of DN.Y., have long pushed the museum to join other Smithsonian Association museums, including the National Museum of American Indians and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, and the late Democrat from California, the late Diane Feinstein, have introduced steps to establish the museum in 2020. Congress approved a package that includes the Women’s History Museum and the Latin National Museum of America. President Donald Trump then signed the legislation.
There have been related bills over the years. One is to build a museum at the National Mall, and the other is funding it.
Scholten and others acknowledge the challenge of getting funds this year, but last week urged the House Budget Committee to include it in their spending bills.
“We wanted to prioritize that. We wanted to keep women’s history (the museum) in mind because when things close, “remember, not how important this is when you move forward,” she said.
Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute for Politics, said the fact that both Democrats and Republicans support the museum should help.
“It’s great to see this coming from the women on either side of the aisle,” she said.
Scholten, the vice-chairman of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, said some women lawmakers are united together on the issue. She noted that there are several other bipartisan efforts in the Congress, including the Congress softball team.
“(We) will be united to make this happen so that we can tell the story of a female changemaker over the years,” she said.
“So many important stories that need to be told”
Despite bipartisan support, some Republican lawmakers opposed the creation of museums that they say are based on “group identity.”
In 2020, Senator Mike Lee of R-Utah blocked the law creating a Latinos and Women’s History Museum, which said, “The last thing we need is to divide a country that has already been divided further.”
The Trump administration is pushing to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in all federal agencies. Earlier this year, Trump signed an executive order bombing agency that said it had spread “divisive ideology.”
The order was named several Smithsonian Society Museums, including the Women’s History Museum.
Walsh said efforts to share the history of women and people of color are labelled Day or dangerous, but will help fill the country’s history talk.
“It’s not taught that schools, young people, young women, young men – we all need to know this history,” she said.
Trump shows signs of support for women’s history museums. At an event at the White House in March, Trump told Rep. Nicole Mariotakis of Rn.Y. that he placed the museum in the National Mall in support of her bipartisan bill.
“You get it and we’re going to back it up 100%,” he said at the event this spring.
Scholten said supporters welcome a meeting with Trump to discuss the museum.
“We want to have an audience with him and explain the importance of this museum and why there’s no reason why it can’t happen now,” she said.
