[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2586 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2586

 To prohibit the Secretary of Veterans Affairs from authorizing honor 
  guards to participate in funerals of veterans interred in national 
  cemeteries unless the honor guards may offer veterans' families the 
option of having the honor guard perform a 13-fold flag recitation, and 
                          for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 21, 2009

Mr. Broun of Georgia (for himself, Mr. Peterson, Mr. Walz, Mr. Cantor, 
Mr. Blunt, Mr. Boren, Mr. Carter, Mr. Carney, Mr. Price of Georgia, Mr. 
 Meek of Florida, Mr. Gingrey of Georgia, Mr. Davis of Tennessee, Mr. 
 Akin, Ms. Fallin, Mr. Kline of Minnesota, Mr. Poe of Texas, Mr. Brady 
 of Texas, Mr. Garrett of New Jersey, Mr. Issa, Mr. King of Iowa, Mr. 
    Luetkemeyer, Mr. Posey, Mrs. Lummis, Mr. Forbes, Mr. Olson, Mr. 
 McHenry, Mr. Gohmert, Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, Mr. Westmoreland, 
  Mr. Jordan of Ohio, Mr. Deal of Georgia, Mr. Wittman, Mr. Young of 
Alaska, Mr. Kingston, Mr. Miller of Florida, Mr. Marchant, Mr. Heller, 
   Mr. Roskam, Mr. Linder, Mr. McCotter, Mr. Tiberi, Mr. Nunes, Mr. 
   Hunter, Mr. Shadegg, and Mr. Sam Johnson of Texas) introduced the 
   following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans' 
                                Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To prohibit the Secretary of Veterans Affairs from authorizing honor 
  guards to participate in funerals of veterans interred in national 
  cemeteries unless the honor guards may offer veterans' families the 
option of having the honor guard perform a 13-fold flag recitation, and 
                          for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The National Cemetery Administration of the Department 
        of Veterans Affairs (hereinafter referred to as the ``NCA'') 
        honors veterans with final resting places in national shrines 
        and with lasting tributes that commemorate their service to the 
        Nation.
            (2) The NCA currently maintains more than 2,800,000 grave 
        sites at 125 national cemeteries in 39 States and Puerto Rico.
            (3) In fiscal year 2006, nearly 97,000 interments were 
        conducted at national cemeteries.
            (4) In fiscal year 2006, nearly 72 percent of interments 
        were at the Nation's 20 busiest national cemeteries in 
        Riverside, California, Florida, Calverton, New York, Jefferson 
        Barracks, Missouri, Fort Snelling, Minnesota, Fort Sam Houston, 
        Texas, Fort Logan, Colorado, Willamette, Oregon, Dallas-Fort 
        Worth, Texas, National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona, Houston, 
        Texas, Fort Rosecrans, California, Abraham Lincoln, Illinois, 
        Tahoma, Washington, Massachusetts, San Joaquin Valley, 
        California, Long Island, New York, Indiantown Gap, 
        Pennsylvania, Ohio Western Reserve, and Great Lakes, Michigan.
            (5) Section 1491 of title 10, United States Code, requires, 
        upon a family's request, that every eligible veteran receive a 
        military funeral honors ceremony, to include folding and 
        presenting the United States burial flag and the playing of 
        Taps, and the law further stipulates that veterans' 
        organizations may assist in providing military funeral honors.
            (6) The folding and presentation of the United States flag 
        is a solemn and important moment for families of the deceased, 
        and can be done in silence or accompanied by a recitation of 
        the 13 steps taken to fold the flag and the meaning behind each 
        step.
            (7) Veterans' service organizations across the Nation often 
        provide funeral honors at national cemeteries, including the 
        folding and presentation of the flag, the recitation of the 
        flag-folding steps and the playing of Taps.
            (8) The recitation of the flag-folding steps should be 
        proactively offered to the families rather than waiting for a 
        request.
            (9) The choice to have the flag-folding ceremony read aloud 
        should rest with the family of the deceased, not the NCA.

SEC. 2. OFFERING OF 13-FOLD FLAG RECITATION AT FUNERALS OF VETERANS IN 
              NATIONAL CEMETERIES.

    The Secretary of Veterans Affairs may not authorize an honor guard 
to participate in the funeral of any veteran interred in a national 
cemetery under the control of the National Cemetery Administration 
unless the honor guard may offer to the family of each veteran in whose 
funeral the honor guard chooses to participate the option of having the 
honor guard perform one of the 13-fold flag recitations.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that 13-fold flag recitations are a 
historical tradition, and that it should be the policy of the 
Department of Veterans Affairs to authorize honor guards to participate 
in the funerals of veterans and proactively offer such a recitation to 
the family of each veteran.
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