The National Mall in D.C. tells America's story through monuments to war heroes and inspirational leaders. But what the Mall doesn't yet have, as the country approaches its 250th year, is an independent monument to women.

President Donald Trump signed legislation in 2020 that authorizes the construction of a monument to the passage of the 19th Amendment and women's suffrage on federal land in D.C. But the effort has stalled, partly because of a tense disagreement over where to put it.

The nonprofit Women's Suffrage National Monument Foundation, which has been leading the memorial effort, is backing legislation to build it on the same grand stretch where monuments like the Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Wall and Washington Monument stand. The National Park Service says it has to go elsewhere.

The monuments on the National Mall make up what is "considered a substantially completed work of civic art," Michael Caldwell, an associate director with the National Park Service, testified in a hearing last month, citing a 1986 law known as the Commemorative Works Act. NPS "strongly supports honoring the American suffragists' long struggle" in "a place of national honor and prominence," Caldwell said, but it must protect the Mall by discouraging "any new commemorative works within it."

Many more monuments have been proposed than the National Mall could fit.

Congress has made only one CWA exemption before, in 2021, for the Global War on Terrorism Memorial. It would need to approve legislation for another for a suffrage monument to be built there, too.

On paper, the Women's Suffrage National Monument Location Act has bipartisan congressional support, having been introduced in March by Sens. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. Off Capitol Hill, its proponents include first ladies from Rosalynn Carter to Melania Trump and historians like Doris Kearns Goodwin.

But Anna Laymon, the executive director of the monument foundation, said she has gotten "the shoulder shrug" from the congressional staffers and officials - mostly men, she says - with whom she has spoken about the project. "I won't care about this unless someone makes me," she said of the reaction she has received.

Kimberly Wallner, the foundation's deputy director, said she and Laymon have been working on monument placement for a year and a half. They want a spot in the Constitution Gardens area of the Reserve, where the only other monument is the Memorial to the 56 Signers of the Declaration of Independence. The proximity of the female fighters for suffrage to the sons of liberty would make for a compelling image, supporters argue.

"The National Mall is home to memorials for those who fought for our freedom, Presidents who defined our country, and the seat of our government, and it is only fitting that it also houses the Women's Suffrage National Monument," Baldwin said in a statement upon introducing the bill.

There are monuments on the Mall that feature women, but none in quite the same way as the suffrage memorial proposes. A statue of Eleanor Roosevelt, for instance, is there "largely as the wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, for a memorial in honor of his legacy," presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said in an interview. "Similarly, the women represented at the Vietnam Memorial are there to tell the story of the Vietnam conflict."

It would be a "real deficit if the women's suffrage movement, which started in 1848 in Seneca Falls, wasn't given a prominent place on the Mall," Brinkley said. "The monument deserves to be visible and dramatic."

Laymon agrees.

"Every little girl who visits the National Mall with her Girl Scout troop should see herself in democracy's story," she said.

Laymon and Peter May, the Park Service's associate regional director for lands and planning, visited a site in January near the National Gallery of Art that NPS proposed as an alternative location. She said she rejected it because of what she called a lack of visibility: by the Mall but not on it.

Laymon said her meetings with NPS officials have left her frustrated. "It's really important that the National Mall not turn into a graveyard. If you fill it up with too many statues, that's what it will look like," she said May told her in a December meeting.

May, when reached for comment, referred questions to NPS, which confirmed that officials had met with Laymon but disputed her account. NPS said it sought to clarify with her the CWA's prohibitions on Mall monuments, and that while officials have discussed other potential locations with Laymon, it said her claim that they were trying to convince the foundation to choose a specific site is not accurate.

The Park Service's role is to "consult and guide memorial sponsors," a spokesperson said.

The House Committee on Natural Resources will convene on the House's bill next week. A Senate subcommittee on National Parks discussed the proposal late last month, hearing testimony from Caldwell, the NPS associate director.

"Maintaining the Mall's open spaces and existing architecture is essential to ensuring that it continues to convey its significance as our nation's premier civic space," he said.

But the suffragists' achievements resonated. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) noted that his state is "proud of the fact we elected the first woman to ever serve in Congress," electing Rep. Jeannette Rankin even before women had the right to vote.

Foundation leaders wanted to speak at the hearing as well, and Baldwin relayed that request to the subcommittee's chair, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine). A spokesperson for King told The Washington Post that, because of time restraints, Caldwell was the only one allowed to give live testimony but that written testimony was encouraged.

"We're going to have more and more of these cases," King said, referring to requests for CWA exemptions. He raised the possibility of discussing the process for monument placements at a future hearing; a spokesman for King told The Post such a hearing could allow other interested parties an opportunity to speak.

Baldwin, in a statement to The Post, called the initial hearing "a positive step forward."

"Only Congress can give this exemption, and we're hopeful they will," Wallner said.

Laymon said the foundation, after selecting a site, plans to hold a "public call" for artists to submit ideas for the monument's design. Organizers say there is an urgency to get started and, at the least, have a sign for the memorial up by the country's 250th, in July 2026, when even larger crowds are expected to roll through the National Mall.

Visiting the Mall one recent weekday, Laymon chatted with Tiffany Jones and her husband, who were visiting from Texas. Laymon explained to them her vision for the monument at the Constitution Gardens site, just across the water from where they stood.

As the couple's grade-schooler skipped through the grass nearby, below the Washington Monument, Jones's husband said they were wondering about "all the dudes" they had learned about on their tour that day.

Where were the women?

"This is what it's all about," Laymon said.