Associated Press

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (right) toured the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford with William McIntosh, a memorial foundation official.

BEDFORD -- Federal officials who looked over the National D-Day Memorial this week to see if it can be placed under the control of the U.S. National Park Service say they are unsure if the monument would fit in the nation's park system.

After spending Tuesday and part of Wednesday at the memorial in Bedford, Terry Moore, chief of park planning for the park service's Northeast Region, said his report to the U.S. Department of the Interior might suggest other options for the financially struggling monument. Among the issues the park service is looking at are the memorial's finances, maintenance and educational programs.

The National D-Day Memorial Foundation is hoping President Obama will declare the eight-year-old memorial a national park. The memorial has a $2.2 million annual operating budget and is running out of money, according to foundation President William McIntosh.

"The real question here is, how does this resource become protected?" said Moore, part of a three-member assessment team. "That may or may not require a role for the National Park Service."

Moore said one of the park service's first tasks will be to determine if the memorial qualifies for a presidential proclamation under the federal Antiquities Act. Other sites declared national park sites under the act were older -- such as the Statue of Liberty -- and are generally located at the spot of a historic event. "This is a little different," Moore said. "It's a commemorative structure that commemorates something that happened somewhere else."

The memorial opened in 2001 to recognize the largest land, air and sea operation in military history -- the Allied landing at Normandy, France, in World War II.

Moore said the assessment team's report will likely be given to the secretary of the Interior Department within two months.

In July, Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb attached an amendment to a defense spending bill that calls for the Interior Department to study the feasibility of adding the memorial to the park service's list of sites. That would put financial responsibility for the memorial in the park service's hands.

Warner, who toured the memorial Tuesday, said "it's appropriate for the United States to step in," but added that he realizes the park service has its own budgetary problems, "and there are a number of other venues around the country that would like to be part of the National Park Service."

Moore said other sites are asking for inclusion in the national park system, including a park that commemorates Gen. George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River.

After the assessment team's visit, McIntosh said he remains hopeful. "At first blush, I don't think there's anything that prevents, ultimately, any kind of a union."