Bush Not Pressing to Cast Reagan for Mall

The Bush administration says it’s too soon to decide to put Ronald Reagan in the company of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln with a memorial on the National Mall.

Richard Ring, an official of the National Park Service, noted at a House subcommittee hearing that Reagan himself, “a man who followed the rules,” signed the ban on any memorials on the Mall until 25 years after a person’s death. He said he was speaking for the Bush administration.

Rep. James V. Hansen (R-Utah), chairman of the panel and sponsor of legislation to waive the waiting period, said it was arbitrary and Reagan is “a very special case.”