The law establishing the United States Semiquincentennial Commission was enacted on July 22, 2016.
The measure became Public Law 114-196, formally creating the commission responsible for promoting and coordinating the 2026 anniversary. It was signed by President Barack Obama. The law gave the federal commemoration an organizing structure a full decade before the anniversary year.
The date is sometimes confused with later milestones. The commission’s members were sworn in at Independence Hall in Philadelphia on November 16, 2018, beginning the body’s public planning phase. Congress amended the commission’s governing law in December 2020, but that was not the date of its original creation.
The 2016 law also reflected the symbolic importance of the anniversary: the commission was intended to connect national programming with the history of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Its work ultimately became associated with the America250 name.