President Biden on Friday signed legislation to designate the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., as the National Pulse Memorial to honor the victims of the 2016 mass shooting at the LGBT nightclub.
“A place of acceptance and joy became a place of unspeakable pain and loss. And we’ll never fully recover but we’ll remember,” the president said at the White House bill signing.
“What we’re going to do, what the members of Congress here did, enshrine in law, as a consequence of that law, enshrine in perpetuity literally a monument to the loss that occurred there and an action and determination that we’re going to deal with this every single solitary day and make sure that we’re not in a position to see this happen again,” he added.
During the signing, photographs of the victims hung behind the president.
The bill was introduced by Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.) and named H.R. 49 to honor the 49 people killed on June 12, 2016.
Investigators at the time deemed the shooting a terrorist attack, and the shooter was shot and killed by Orlando police officers. The incident is the deadliest shooting in the U.S. targeting LGBT people.
“May no president ever have to sign another monument like this,” he said. “As I said to the survivors and those who lost folks a little earlier in private, you know, what the Congress has done means a great deal and it’s important, but it’s really hard, it brings back everything as if it happened yesterday.”
Biden acknowledged how “tough” it is every time there is a memorial service for his late son, Beau. Two survivors of the shooting, Neema Bahrami and Brandon Wolf, attended the bill signing, as well as families of victims.
LGBT members of Congress, including Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), attended the event, as well as Florida Democratic Reps. Val Demings and Stephanie Murphy.
During the event, Biden also said he spoke to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) about the deadly building collapse in Miami and sent resources to help in the city.
“I promise you, the administration is going to do everything possible to be in assistance now and after this occurs, after they decide exactly what the state of play is,” Biden said.