Washington, D.C. – Today, Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D) and Cory Gardner (R) applauded House passage of H.R. 473, legislation to authorize Colorado artist Jane DeDecker to install her Every Word We Utter sculpture in Washington D.C. Introduced by Bennet and Gardner in the Senate and U.S. Representative Joe Neguse (D-CO-2) in the House, the bill would establish the first outdoor monument to commemorate the women’s suffrage movement and would feature Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Harriet Stanton Blatch, Sojourner Truth, Alice Paul, and Ida B. Wells.
“I can’t think of a more fitting way to commemorate 100 years of women’s suffrage than with the first outdoor monument in honor of the suffragists in our nation’s capital. I see the suffragists as founders of our country just as much as the people who wrote the Constitution – they fought for over 50 years to secure the right to vote. They understood that their responsibility as citizens was to strengthen our republic,” said Bennet. “I’m grateful to Congressman Neguse for pushing this bill through the House and I look forward to moving it in the Senate so that we can pay tribute to the women’s suffrage movement accordingly.”
“Colorado was the first state to approve women’s suffrage by popular referendum, and three women from Colorado were the first women ever elected to any legislature in U.S. history when they were elected to the Colorado House of Representatives,” said Gardner. “I’m proud that our entire congressional delegation is working to establish the first outdoor monument honoring the women’s suffrage movement and the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. I look forward to the day where women from all over the world will be inspired by the sculpture in our nation’s capital honoring the generations of women whose determination guaranteed women the right to vote.”
The text of the Senate version of the bill is available HERE.
