WASHINGTON — The Senate approved without opposition Aug. 1 a bill intended to protect San Diego’s Mount Soledad cross as a memorial to military veterans.
Senators agreed by unanimous consent to grant to the federal government ownership of the Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial, a 29-foot cross that stands atop an 800-foot mountain and has been a target of church-state separationists. The House of Representatives voted 349–74 for the same measure July 19.
President George W. Bush is expected to sign it into law.
The legislation would sign over ownership of the property to the federal government to preserve it as a national military war memorial, which would be administered by the Department of Defense. The federal government would be required to pay an appropriate amount for the property and would be barred from extending its boundaries.
The Senate action marked another in a series of recent wins for those seeking to prevent a court from removing the cross, which was erected in 1954 as a tribute to veterans of the Korean War.
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