Efforts to have the National Park Service take over the financially struggling National D-Day Memorial in Bedford inched forward Thursday.

A bill was passed in the House of Representatives authorizing the U.S. Department of the Interior to study the matter. The Senate still has to take up the bill.

The secretary of the interior has already launched a study, but Sen. Mark Warner wrote in a statement that the legislation "provides an additional level of 'insurance' that the process will be completed."

A team from the park service visited the memorial in August to see if it would fit within the national park system.