RELEASE: Blunt-McCaskill Gateway Arch bill headed to the President’s desk

WASHINGTON — Missouri U.S. Senators Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill today announced that their legislation, S. 1438, which renames the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial as the Gateway Arch National Park, passed the House yesterday and is headed to the president’s desk.

“The St. Louis Arch is one of the world’s most iconic landmarks and a symbol of our state’s historic role as the ‘Gateway to the West,’” said Blunt. “Renaming the park will better highlight its central feature and make it more immediately recognizable to the millions of people who visit St. Louis every year.”

“The Arch is known worldwide as a symbol for our great city of St. Louis, the Show-Me state, and the Gateway to the West,” said McCaskill. “As the memorial grounds re-open this summer, it’s the perfect time to bring our majestic park together under a new name that highlights this remarkable symbol.”

In 1935, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial was designated as a national memorial by Executive Order. The Gateway Arch was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in 1947 and completed in 1965. The Blunt-McCaskill bill aligns the name of the park with its most famous and widely-recognized feature.

2017. 1438 passed the Senate on December 21, 2017. Companion legislation was introduced in the House by Missouri U.S. Representatives Wm. Lacy Clay and Ann Wagner.