Saxton is an original cosponsor of the bill. Earlier this year the House Resources Committee, of which Saxton is a senior member, approved the bill, H.R. 2982. The legislation authorizes the design and construction of a memorial in the District of Columbia to officially recognize any American who lost their life either home or abroad to a terrorist act. The House voted 418-0 for passage with 14 not voting.

Saxton is one of the highest ranking members of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC),  and is chairman of the House Special Oversight Panel on Terrorism.

"More American civilians, more firefighters and more police officers were killed on 9/11 than any other day in our history," Saxton said. "They and all Americans who fall to acts of terror must be remembered and held dear by the nation. A memorial in the capital is the proper way for us as a people to remember that freedom and peace are bought and paid for with the blood of fellow Americans. We must be strong to fight terrorism, and remembering those who have fallen will make us stronger." 

H.R. 2982 is sponsored by Rep. Jim Turner, (D-TX) who also serves on HASC and who traveled to Manhattan with Saxton after the Sept. 11 attacks. The bill calls for a memorial to be built in the District of Columbia in the area of the National Mall and adjacent land to the north and south.

The legislation authorizes the creation of a Victims of Terrorism Memorial Advisory Board, which will raise the necessary funds from private sources for the design, construction, and maintenance of the memorial.  The members of the advisory board will be appointed by President Bush and will include representatives of organizations dedicated to assisting victims of terrorism and their families.

The advisory board, in conjunction with the National Capital Memorial Commission and the Secretary of the Interior, would determine the design and permanent location of the memorial. The Secretary of Interior would be directed to establish the memorial on federal lands managed by the National Park Service in Washington, DC.

In March, families of victims came to hearings on the bill in Washington and spoke out in emotional support of the need for a national memorial. Among them was New Jersey resident Lisa Beamer, widow of Todd Beamer, 32, a passenger aboard United Flight 93, which crashed into a rural area of Pennsylvania on 9/11. Beamer and other passengers, aware of the devastating N.Y. and Washington attacks, and that the terrorists who took control of their plane were likely targeting more victims, stormed the cockpit and challenged hijackers to save others but at the cost of their own lives. Todd Beamer left behind two small children and a then-pregnant wife.

"These are the stories of sadness, sacrifice and heroism," Saxton said. "Our capital has many monuments to Americans who made sacrifices, sometimes the ultimate sacrifice, in times of war and peace. Americans felled by terrorists must be memorialized with a place to go, a place to learn and to remember what happened, so that we may have the resolve to carry on the war on terrorism."