NBC Washington's July 16, 2010, feature story on the memorial highlighted Frank Buckles's support for re-dedication as a National and District of Columbia World War I Memorial.

On July 17, 2010, the Associated Press (AP) reported on the National Park Service's planned $2.3 million restoration of the D.C. War Memorial. AP's member media outlets offered wide news coverage of the memorial and the foundation's work.

World War I Memorial Foundation secretary/treasurer and board member Edwin L. Fountain spoke on Frank Buckles’s dream of a national World War I memorial and on pending Congressional legislation, S. 2097, that would achieve this if enacted. Buckles, 109, is the last U.S. World War I veteran and the honorary chairman of the foundation. Michael T. Kelly of the National Park Service gave an overview of memorial’s restoration plan.

Keynote speaker District of Columbia Superior Court Associate Judge Robert R. Rigsby said, "every veteran I talk to, every soldier I see in uniform, everyone I know who has answered the call to duty is a living monument to the service and sacrifice of World War I veterans." In 2009, Rigsby became the first military judge in history to deploy full-time to an active theatre of war, as the sole military judge for Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan, for which he received the Bronze Star.

The first annual Commemorative Observance was held on May 1, 1936, and was organized by the D.C. Salon Departmentale Eight & Forty, a subsidiary organization of The American Legion Auxiliary. Over the intervening years the event has been expanded to honor all war dead from the District of Columbia who fought in all conflicts for the United States. The District of Columbia World War Memorial and May Day Corporation, comprised of The American Legion, American Legion Auxiliary, the Forty & Eight, and the Eight & Forty, was formed in 1940 for the purpose of arranging annual May memorial observances at the District of Columbia War Memorial. Expenses of the Annual Observances are borne by contributions from each of the four organizations, as well as members of the public.

The Department of the Interior has announced that the National Park Service will spend $7.3 million on restoration of the District of Columbia War Memorial. The funds come from $750 million that was allocated to the nation's parks as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  The memorial's restoration is one of 750 park projects around the country that are receiving stimulus funds. One of the two major goals of the World War I Memorial Foundation has thus been accomplished. The Foundation is continuing to lobby for Congressional authorization to re-dedicate the memorial as a "National and District of Columbia War Memorial."

Here are links to the Washington Post's article and Fox 5 coverage of the funding of the memorial's restoration.

The National Park Service has issued a "preliminary preferred alternative plan" for improvements to the National Mall and Memorial Parks in Washington. This planning document, which will still go through public review and comment as well as an environmental impact study, outlines the Park Service's plans for near- and long-term development of the Mall. The plan, which will likely be finalized in late 2009, includes as one of its elements the rehabilitation of the DC War Memorial.

See the NPS preliminary plan.