[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 163 (Friday, November 15, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1677]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


INTRODUCING THE ``HONORING OUR FALLEN HEROES WITH DIGNITY ACT OF 2013''

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                           HON. JIM McDERMOTT

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, November 15, 2013

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Honoring 
Our Fallen Heroes with Dignity Act of 2013.
  This act protects the rights of families to leave small keepsakes at 
the gravesites of servicemembers buried in Section 60 of Arlington 
National Cemetery, many of whom bravely served their country in Iraq 
and in Afghanistan.
  During the summer of 2013, officials at Arlington National Cemetery 
came through Section 60 and, without providing advance notice to 
families, threw away mementos left behind for the heroes buried in 
Section 60.
  Teresa Arciola, a mother whose son was killed in Iraq in 2005, cried 
when she found out that the mementos she left at her son's gravesite 
had been removed. ``It was like no one cared anymore,'' she told The 
Washington Post.
  The act would allow mementos to be left on the top of and immediately 
next to grave markers in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery as 
long as they did not interfere with normal operations and maintenance 
procedures, such as mowing the grass.
  The items can not be a health or safety hazard, be permanently 
affixed to gravestones, and can't interfere with normal operations of 
the Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery. At end of each month, 
items left on the grave stone will be collected, cataloged, and stored.

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