Title 16ConservationRelease 119-73

§450ss Findings and purposes

Title 16 › Chapter CHAPTER 1— - NATIONAL PARKS, MILITARY PARKS, MONUMENTS, AND SEASHORES › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER LXI— - NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL MONUMENTS AND MEMORIALS › § 450ss

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Establish and maintain a National Memorial at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building site in Oklahoma City to honor those affected by the April 19, 1995 bombing. The blast killed 168 people, some of them children. Many survivors, including children, were left with physical and emotional injuries. The losses touched families, the local community, the Nation, and the world. People from Oklahoma and around the globe showed unity, compassion, and heroism during rescue and recovery. Because the site was federal and many victims were federal employees, the memorial must be created and run by a public/private partnership. It will teach current and future generations about the bombing and encourage people to work together respectfully and effectively.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §450ss

Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Congress finds that—
(1)few events in the past quarter-century have rocked Americans’ perception of themselves and their institutions, and brought together the people of our Nation with greater intensity than the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City;
(2)the resulting deaths of 168 people, some of whom were children, immediately touched thousands of family members whose lives will forever bear scars of having those precious to them taken away so brutally;
(3)suffering with such families are countless survivors, including children, who struggle not only with the suffering around them, but their own physical and emotional injuries and with shaping a life beyond April 19;
(4)such losses and struggles are personal and, since they resulted from so public an attack, they are also shared with a community, a Nation, and the world;
(5)the story of the bombing does not stop with the attack itself or with the many losses it caused. The responses of Oklahoma’s public servants and private citizens, and those from throughout the Nation, remain as a testament to the sense of unity, compassion, even heroism, that characterized the rescue and recovery following the bombing;
(6)during the days immediately following the Oklahoma City bombing, Americans and people from around the world of all races, political philosophies, religions and walks of life responded with unprecedented solidarity and selflessness; and
(7)given the national and international impact and reaction, the Federal character of the site of the bombing, and the significant percentage of the victims and survivors who were Federal employees, the Oklahoma City Memorial will be established, designed, managed and maintained to educate present and future generations, through a public/private partnership, to work together efficiently and respectfully in developing a National Memorial relating to all aspects of the April 19, 1995, bombing in Oklahoma City.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Short Title

of 2004 Amendment Pub. L. 108–199, div. F, title V, § 544(a), Jan. 23, 2004, 118 Stat. 347, provided that: “This section [amending sections 450ss–1 to 450ss–3 and 450ss–5 of this title, repealing section 450ss–4, 450ss–6, and 450ss–7 of this title, and enacting provisions set out as notes under section 450ss–3 and 450ss–4 of this title] may be cited as the ‘Oklahoma City National Memorial Act

Amendments

of 2003’.”

Short Title

Pub. L. 105–58, § 1, Oct. 9, 1997, 111 Stat. 1261, provided that: “This Act [enacting this section and sections 450ss–1 to 450ss–7 of this title] may be cited as the ‘Oklahoma City National Memorial Act of 1997’.”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 450ss

Title 16Conservation

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73