The nonprofit preservation group that runs the Congressional Cemetery may request up to $4 million in Congressional funds for renovation efforts in fiscal 2005, said Linda Harper, chairwoman of the Association for the Preservation of Historic Congressional Cemetery’s executive committee.

The group, which will kick off a $40 million fundraising effort to renovate the 33-acre cemetery by early next year, received $100,000 in the recently passed omnibus spending bill for a new landscape plan, the removal of dead and dying trees, and public vault repairs, but failed to secure a $3.3 million request for road improvements, Harper said.

The fiscal 2004 funds were initially scheduled to be included in the legislative branch appropriations bill, but were moved to the D.C. appropriations bill at the request of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) to have a clean vehicle for the supplemental spending bill, said Barry Piatt, communications director to Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), who led the funding push in Congress. Piatt said Dorgan doesn’t know what, if anything, he plans to do for fiscal 2005 appropriations.

National Mall Initiative Launched

“The National Mall: The Next 100 Years, An Initiative for a Mall Conservancy,” will convene tonight from 6-8 p.m. in Room 113 of George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs at 1957 E St. NW.

Conservancy experts will consider how Mall stakeholders can be better coordinated in the Mall’s planning process, how to achieve a new vision for the Mall, and whether the conservancy model would benefit the Mall.

The event, sponsored by the National Coalition to Save Our Mall and other groups, will be moderated by the Van Alen Institute’s Raymond Gastil.

For more information, call (301) 340-3938 or go to www.nationalmall.net.

— Bree Hocking