National Cemeteries Act

Summary

National Cemeteries Act - Authorizes the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to plan and maintain a system of national cemeteries, and to establish a program of existing cemeteries and creation of additional cemeteries. Provides that each grave in each national cemetery shall be marked with a small headstone bearing the name of the person buried in such grave. Specifies the persons to be buried in national cemeteries, including: (1) any veteran who served on active duty (other than for training) and whose last such service terminated honorably; (2) any member of a Reserve component of the Armed Forces, and any member of the Army National Guard, whose death occurs under honorable conditions while he is on active duty, authorized inactive duty training, or in a hospital at the expense of the United States. (3) any member of the Reserve Officers Training Corps of the Army, Navy, or Air Force whose death occurs under honorable conditions while he is attending an authorized training camp or undergoing hospital treatment at the expense of the United States; (4) any citizen of the United States who served in the Armed Forces of any U.S. ally in a war in which the United States was engaged and whose last service terminated honorably; and (5) the wife, husband, surviving spouse, minor child, and unmarried adult child of any of the persons listed in paragraphs (1) through (4). States that no person who on the date of his death was a member of a Communist-elected organization shall be buried in any national cemetery. Provides that the Administrator shall set aside, when applicable, suitable plots in national cemeteries to honor the memory of members of the Armed Forces missing in action. Authorizes the Administrator to furnish, when requested, appropriate Government headstones or markers for the graves of: (1) soliders of the Union and Confederate Armies of the Civil War; (2) members of the Armed Forces dying in the service and veterans whose last service terminated honorably; (3) persons buried in cemeteries and national cemeteries; and (4) persons specified in provisions (2) and (3) in the above section on eligibility. Requires superintendents of national cemeteries to be selected from among trustworthy veterans with a service- connected disability. Authorizes the Administrator to acquire additional lands as needed and to convey approach roads to national cemeteries to State and local authorities. Prescribes a fine of between $25 and $100, or imprisonment of between 15 and 60 days, for defacing a national cemetery, and authorizes the superintendent to arrest a person engaged in committing such act. Authorizes to the Administrator to send annual recommendations to Congress with respect to the memorials to be erected, and the remains of deceased members of the Armed Forces to be entombed in the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater, Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. Transfers jurisdiction and responsibility for any cemetery under the jurisdiction of the Secretaries of the Interior and the Army to the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs. (Adds 38 U.S.C. 218, 951-58)

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1 official file

• Introduced in House

  summary · EN · 26 January 1973

  Open at official source

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