A bipartisan group of U.S. senators wants to make it easier to exhume and remove the remains of veterans convicted of serious crimes from national cemeteries.
“The burial grounds of our national cemeteries should be reserved for the bravest and most honorable among us,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, in a statement announcing the bill introduced Tuesday. The legislation would give the Department of Veterans Affairs extended authority to disinter the remains of any “disgraced veteran” who wouldn’t be deemed eligible for burial under the standards and practices of current law, Cornyn said.
Under current law, the VA can only reconsider a veteran’s eligibility for burial in national cemeteries for cases dating back to 2013. Families and victims’ advocates who want the VA to disinter someone buried before that time who had committed a serious crime must advocate for a law to be passed directing each individual’s exhumation and removal. That is “creating unnecessary delays and inequities,” senators stated.
The senators’ proposal would give the VA retroactive authority dating back to June 18, 1973, when the National Cemeteries Act was signed into law. A law took effect in 1997 that prohibits the burial of veterans who have committed serious crimes in national cemeteries.
A subsequent law allows VA to reconsider a veteran’s eligibility retroactively, but limits these reconsiderations to cases dating back to 2013.
“Rather than setting an arbitrary cutoff for disinterment requests, this legislation will help ensure that the process is available to everyone,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, in the announcement.
There are at least seven outstanding disinterment petitions across multiple states, including Hawaii, Alaska, Pennsylvania, Florida and California, the senators said. Senators from those states are among those who introduced the bill, including Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; John Fetterman, D-Pennsylvania; Rick Scott, R-Florida; and Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
Earlier this year, the Senate passed a law introduced by Cornyn to disinter the remains of Fernando V. Cota, a convicted rapist and alleged serial murderer, from the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas, where he was buried in 1984. The bill has not yet been considered in the House.
Also this year, Rep. Scott Perry, R-Penn., introduced a bill in the House to disinter the remains of George E. Siple, a veteran who was convicted of the 1969 murder of Bertha Smith, and died in prison 30 years later. He was buried in Indiantown Gap National Cemetery, Pennsylvania, in 1999. Similar bills regarding Siple’s exhumation, including one introduced by Perry last year, haven’t been successful.
Karen has covered military families, quality of life and consumer issues for Military Times for more than 30 years, and is co-author of a chapter on media coverage of military families in the book “A Battle Plan for Supporting Military Families.” She previously worked for newspapers in Guam, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fla., and Athens, Ga.