August 2, 1876 Congress appropriates $2 million in federal funds to complete the construction of the Washington Monument. The public funding is contingent upon the transfer of ownership of the monument from The Washington National Monument Society to the federal government.

The funding of the Washington Monument was a two-phase process that mirrored the monument's fractured construction history. Initially, it was funded by the Washington National Monument Society, a private group founded in 1833 by Chief Justice John Marshall and others. They raised money through "public subscriptions," or small donations from individual citizens, originally limited to just $1 per person to make the monument "everyone's work." However, the society ran out of money in 1854 with the monument only 152 feet tall. After a 22-year halt that included the American Civil War, the U.S. Congress stepped in to fund the completion. In 1876, President Ulysses S. Grant signed an act that provided $2 million in federal funds to finish the obelisk, under the condition that ownership was transferred to the federal government. This is why you can see a "color shift" in the stones about one-third of the way up; the newer stones were sourced from a different quarry during the government-funded phase. In more recent years, private donors like David Rubenstein have provided millions for repairs following earthquakes.