Honoring American Veterans Act of 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. WALZ of Minnesota. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I too rise in support of this piece of legislation, Honoring American Veterans Act of 2011. It is a very important, very sacred responsibility with the placement of monuments and how Arlington National Cemetery and our national cemeteries work. It is very clear in the prohibition of the reservation of grave sites at Arlington National. It also makes clear that only one grave site per family is permitted for burial.

Again, I am proud of serving on this committee and am proud of the chairman and the subcommittee chairman's work. There was a little bit of controversy as we talked through this issue of Arlington monuments, but I am very pleased the way this worked out. I think the compromise, working with the Senate and making sure that happens is in the right interest of the veterans' groups; it is in the right interest of those families who have their loved ones interred at Arlington.

I think once we develop that commission, it keeps Congress in the loop, strikes that proper balance of the original bill, we are going to have a really great piece of legislation, and that is exactly the way it is supposed to work.

This piece of legislation does honor the memory of those Jewish chaplains at Arlington by establishing a memorial marker on Chaplains Hill, and rightly so, to honor those who died while on active duty, and pays tribute to all of our servicemembers serving in Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn.

I think it is, again, absolutely appropriate that this piece of legislation is coming up the week before Memorial Day, and I believe the committee is doing the work we were sent to do.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

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