Special to the Leader & Times
U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) – members of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee – introduced the Honoring Veterans’ Legacies and Burial Benefits Enhancements Act to improve memorialization and burial benefits for veterans and their families.
This legislation would establish a nonprofit entity that would be able to accept private donations to be used to fund the Veterans Legacy Program (VLP). VLP issues grants to educational partners to conduct historical research projects on veterans buried in national cemeteries in their communities to then share those veteran stories through educational programming. This legislation would also make certain veteran burials are dignified and honorable, while also enhancing current burial benefits for dependents and historical Medal of Honor recipients.
“How we memorialize and honor our veterans, when they have passed, sends a message to their families, our servicemembers and the country that we value the sacrifice or our military men and women even as the years pass,” said Sen. Moran. “The Honoring Veterans’ Legacies and Burial Benefits Enhancement Act would help ensure dignified interment and memorialization in our national cemeteries for veterans and their families, while honoring their service and telling their stories for generations to come.”
“At the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, alone, there are more than 50,000 veterans laid to rest,” said Sen. Hirono. “These veterans have unique, but too often untold stories—stories that deserve to be shared now and into the future. Among other things, the Honoring Veterans’ Legacies and Burial Benefits Enhancements Act will help to ensure those stories are told and preserved, enabling people across the country to better honor the memory of our veterans and their service.”
The full text of the legislation can be found at https://www.veterans.senate.gov/services/files/E356F394-4F39-454A-A297-210FF5DBB5AE.
“The VFW supports the Honoring Veterans’ Legacies and Burial Benefits Enhancements Act,” said VFW National Legislative Associate Director Nancy Springer. “This legislation would establish the National Cemeteries Foundation to enable privately funded grants to sustain the Veterans Legacy Program educational outreach to research and preserve for posterity the stories of veterans interred in national cemeteries. This bill would also empower VA’s National Cemetery Administration to ensure dignified burials, and to enhance interment benefits for burial markers and eligible dependents. The VFW thanks Senators Moran and Hirono for introducing these important legislative proposals to improve the memorialization of our veterans and their family members.”
“All veterans deserve the dignified burial and the military honors that they are entitled to,” said Heather Ansley, Chief Policy Officer for Paralyzed Veterans of America. “The Honoring Veterans’ Legacies and Burial Benefits Enhancements Act would help ensure the nation is fulfilling that obligation.”
"Establishing a foundation to fund the Veterans Legacy Program brings new life to the national cemeteries,” said President & CEO, American Association for State and Local History, John R. Dichtl. “Generations of students will be able to explore how local and state history, through the lives of individual veterans, connect to national and global events."
This legislation is also supported by the American Legion, National Council on Public History, and American Federation of Teachers.
