Memorial funds awaiting action

By Chris Casteel

Published: May 20, 2006

WASHINGTON - The North Carolina congressman who blocked federal funding for a United Flight 93 memorial has resisted allocating $2 million that Congress already has pledged for the Oklahoma City National Memorial.

In a recent public statement, Rep. Charles Taylor, a Republican who heads the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing the National Park Service, understated how many people visit the Oklahoma City memorial and said memorial officials want taxpayers to make up for a shortage of private donations.

Kari F. Watkins, executive director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial, and Dr. Gloria Griffin, chairman of the Oklahoma City National Memorial Foundation, met with Taylor last week to persuade him to visit the memorial.

Watkins said in an interview Friday that Taylor listened and was open to a visit. But she couldn't predict whether he would agree to include the $2 million for the memorial.

Taylor's press secretary, Deborah Potter, said in an e-mail reply to questions from The Oklahoman that "conversations are ongoing between Congressman Taylor and representatives of the memorial."

Wrong information

In late April, Taylor put out a public statement explaining his position on the Flight 93 memorial in Pennsylvania and included these comments:

"Supporters of the memorial to the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing, for example, estimated they would have a million visitors a year and would raise substantial nonfederal funds. In reality, they are having less than 50,000 visitors per year and are unable to raise a great portion of the expected private money. They are now requesting millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to step in and replace un-materialized pledges."

Watkins fired off a letter to Taylor on April 27: "Since we opened the museum in 2001, we have never had less than 200,000 paying visitors to the Memorial Museum, plus we have approximately another 250,000-300,000 visit the outdoor site."

The letter states that the memorial's endowment campaign last year received $5 million in state matching funds and $8 million in private funds.

Museum defended
"We have never written off a major pledge in the 11 years of the Memorial Foundation," the letter states. "We also have never had trouble raising public money for the Memorial."

Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Warr Acres, who also has been working on getting the remaining $2 million for the Oklahoma City memorial, had considered offering an amendment to the Interior Department spending bill. However, no amendment was offered when the bill was considered Thursday on the House floor.

John Albaugh, Istook's chief of staff, said, "Congressman Istook has had multiple conversations with Chairman Taylor, both to set the record straight and to get the final funding that will secure the Memorial's future. We're working hard on this, but things are at a sensitive stage; that makes it best not to comment further."

After Taylor was criticized for blocking for two years the federal funding for a memorial in the Pennsylvania field where the hijacked United Airlines plane crashed on Sept. 11, 2001, he agreed to include $5 million in the land purchase bill after a request from the White House.

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