Raskin-Spartz bill to put Thomas Paine memorial in the National Mall’s core awaits House vote

By Philippa Langstrom

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan bill from Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) that would put a planned Thomas Paine memorial in the most prominent section of the National Mall is waiting for a House floor vote after clearing committee without objection.

The House Natural Resources Committee ordered H.R. 9600, the Common Sense 250 Act of 2026, reported by unanimous consent on Sept. 15, according to the committee’s markup record as summarized by LegiList. The bill has not received a House floor vote.

What the bill does

The two-section bill approves locating the Paine memorial in “Area I” of the Mall, notwithstanding the Commemorative Works Act requirement that Congress separately sign off on any memorial placed there. Area I, as defined on the National Park Service’s 2003 commemorative-areas map, is the central core that includes the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Tidal Basin and the World War II Memorial.

Congress authorized the memorial itself in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, through a provision Raskin sponsored and Spartz cosponsored. The Thomas Paine Memorial Association is responsible for building it. The National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission recommended in September 2024 that it go in Area I, according to Raskin’s office. The memorial is to be paid for with private money, his office said.

The sponsors’ case

“Rep. Raskin and I had to go all the way back to the American Revolution to find common ground, but I’m glad we can come together on a bipartisan basis to recognize Thomas Paine,” Spartz said in a Sept. 16 statement.

Raskin called Paine an “absurdly unsung patriot” and said the bill would cement his legacy “as indispensable to our country’s very existence.” Margaret Downey, president of the memorial association, said in July that “Area 1 is exactly where he belongs.”

The bill comes during the nation’s 250th anniversary year. Paine’s pamphlet “Common Sense,” which made the case for independence, was published in January 1776.

Space in Area I is tightly limited. The Commemorative Works Act treats it as a “substantially completed work of civic art” and allows new memorials there only for subjects of “preeminent historical and lasting significance,” and only with an act of Congress. That is the approval H.R. 9600 would provide.