Smithsonian behind schedule on Latino and women’s history museums

The Smithsonian Institution has missed a year-end deadline to designate two sites for its upcoming National Museum of the American Latino and American Women’s History Museum, putting both behind schedule.

Congress failed to grant an exemption to build on two proposed sites in a no-construction area around the National Mall, Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas confirmed Friday. 

The responsibility to decide the issue now rests with the incoming Congress in the new year, she told The Washington Times. 

“We did announce the two optimal sites, but we cannot proceed until Congress gives permission to build on the National Mall,” Ms. St. Thomas said in a telephone call. “The Smithsonian, through the Board of Regents, was pretty clear about what sites we preferred. So, we’ll see.”

Congress passed a bipartisan law authorizing the two museums in December 2020. That law set a deadline for the Smithsonian to designate the two final sites by the end of 2022.

The law also included a provision banning construction in the Reserve, an area of undeveloped National Park Service land surrounding the Mall. Sens. Joe Manchin, West Virginia Democrat, and Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican, supported that ban.

The Smithsonian said it worked with the Baltimore-based firm Ayers Saint Gross to review more than 25 sites. In October, the Board of Regents proposed two “optimal sites,” both within the no-build area.

The Tidal Basin site is a playing field that borders Raoul Wallenberg Place SW, Maine Avenue SW and Independence Avenue SW, just west of the Holocaust Memorial Museum and east of the basin.

The South Monument site on Jefferson Drive SW sits across the Mall from the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Supporters of the sites had hoped Congress would grant an exemption to the no-build provision in lame-duck budget negotiations after the November midterm elections.

But that bipartisan support failed to emerge as Congress focused instead on passing an omnibus spending package.

The failure to pass legislation authorizing the museum sites rankled Sen. Bob Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat and vocal supporter of the National Museum of the American Latino.

In a Dec. 22 speech on the Senate floor, he attributed the delay to “opaque, closed-door negotiations.”