Hon. OLIN E. TEAGUE, CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Washington, D.C., March 28, 1968. Chairman, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Cannon House Office Building. MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you for your March 8 letter regarding the Committee's consideration of national cemetery legislation. I would appreciate your making the attached statement a part of the Committee's record of hearings. With best personal regards. BOB WILSON, Member of Congress. STATEMENT OF HON. BOB WILSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to submit testimony in support of my national cemetery bill, H.J. Res. 909. Those of us who have long decried the Administration's announced policy of phasing out national cemeteries were greatly heartened by the recommendations of the recently published Veterans Advisory Commission Report, which came out strongly in favor of a realistic national cemetery policy designed to meet the needs of our nation's veterans of past wars, as well as the brave heroes of the conflict in Vietnam. Inaction by Congress and hostility by Administration spokesmen have in the past decade pushed the cemetery situation well beyond the crisis point. In many areas of the country, there are no gravesites for casualities of the Vietnam conflict because all available space has been filled. The legislation under consideration today in this Committee is an important step in the right direction. The national cemetery program has been greatly confused by the conflicting jurisdictions of the many-headed creature which has the responsibility for national cemeteries. All other major programs affecting the nation's veterans are under the auspices of the Veterans Administration. Yet national cemeteries are split between the VA, the Department of Interior, and the Army with separate rules and regulations for each type facility. To my way of thinking, the administratively logical location for all veterans' burial matters is the Veterans Administration. I would like, therefore, to add my wholehearted support for the legislation pending before the Committee and am hopeful that rapid House and Senate action will be forthcoming very soon. After a change in administrative jurisdiction, the next step, as recommended by the Advisory Commission, is that the "Administrator of Veterans Affairs conduct a study on methods of providing burial grounds for all veterans convenient to their homes." My bill, H.J. Res. 909, provides for the establishment of a National Cemetery Site Selection Advisory Board which would be entrusted with the responsibility of researching suitable national cemetery sites and making recommendations for establishment or enlargement of cemeteries to the Secretary of the Army. The language of the bill would have to be amended, of course, to substitute the Administrator of Veterans Affairs, rather than the Secretary of the Army, upon passage of the legislation under consideration by the Committee. An impartial panel of this sort could best survey the entire national cemetery situation and make carefully researched recommendations for the future development of national cemeteries to best meet the goal of providing all veterans the opportunity to be buried in a national cemetery near their homes. The need for immediate action on national cemeteries is aggravated by the Army's failure to use funds appropriated for Fiscal 1967 in the amount of $643,000 to provide a stopgap expansion of five closed national cemeteries, in order to meet the demands of the Vietnam war. When I asked the Secretary of the Army for an explanation of this action, I was advised that, because of the President's recent Veterans' message and the expected report from the Advisory Commission, "the limited plan for expansion of five cemeteries by small increments would not contribute to, and could well detract from, the President's announced objectives on behalf of the nation's veterans. Accordingly, the five-cemetery expansion plan has been deferred, pending a more complete formulation of the expansion policies and plans following analysis of the Advisory Commission's report." The need for reopening these cemeteries was critical when funds were appropriated for Fiscal 1967. With the increasingly tragic rate of loss in Vietnam, the situation has grown to desperate proportions. I am hopeful that the Committee will act rapidly to transfer all cemetery jurisdiction to the Veterans Administration and very much appreciate the opportunity of testifying before the Committee. CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, Hon. OLIN E. TEAGUE, Chairman, Veterans' Affairs Committee, 301 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C. DEAR CHAIRMAN TEAGUE: This letter is in regard to the hearings on national cemeteries which recently have been held by a special subcommittee under your chairmanship. In regard to those hearings, I have been contacted by veterans' organizations in my District expressing the view that a national cemetery should be located in Wisconsin for the benefit of our Wisconsin veterans. For some years now, I have urged the Veterans Administration to establish such a national cemetery at the former site of the Bong Air Force base in southeastern Wisconsin. There is a good deal of unused federal land there lying idle at the present time which could be used as a cemetery, serving not only Wisconsin but also the heavily populated northern Illinois area. Any effort which you can make to further such a project would be gratefully appreciated. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: In response to your letter of March 8, I am herewith submitting 25 copies of a brief statement in support of H.R. 15052 which would provide for the establishment of a national cemetery in Spencer County, Indiana. I appreciate the opportunity to offer this statement to your committee. Sincerely, ROGER H. ZION, Member of Congress. STATEMENT BY THE HONORABLE ROGER H. ZION, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF INDIANA A NATIONAL CEMETERY FOR THE LINCOLN COUNTY Mr. Chairman, I am very pleased to have the privilege of submitting a statement to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs in support of my bill, H.R. 15052. This legislation calls for the establishment of a national cemetery at or near the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Spencer County, Indiana, and would authorize the acquisition of the land required for such a cemetery. Mr. Chairman, the creation of such a cemetery has long been the dream of the many veterans' organizations and their individual memberships in Southern Indiana. Since coming to Congress in January of last year, I have had a great outpouring of interest from my district regarding establishment of this muchneeded cemetery. Simply stated, these is no available grave space in Indiana in a national cemetery. Both national cemeteries in the Hoosier state, Crown Hill at Indianapolis and New Albany National Cemetery in Floyd County have been filled and closed for some time. Thus, a Hoosier veteran desiring to find a final resting place in the soil of his native state must be turned away from existing national cemeteries. When I first explored the idea of legislation calling for the creation of additional national cemetery space, I faced a discouraging prospect. The space shortage crisis at Arlington last year focused national attention on the prospect of rapidly shrinking grave availability at a number of locations. In spite of these critical prospects, my investigation revealed that the Administration appeared adamantly against the establishment of any additional space, citing the reason that, overalll, there was still available space in the nation, although such space might not be convenient to the homes of individual veterans. Many valiant former fighting men had counted on a burial at Arlington. But, in addition to heavy restrictions now being placed on this most famous resting place for national heroes, veterans were now being told they could not count on being buried near their homes, near the things for which they fought and risked their lives. I have believed that there is truly a "democracy in death" and that the arbitrary imposition of classifications on burial at Arlington violated the best democratic traditions of America. Many veterans, denied an Arlington burial, would still have been content with interment close to home. But the Administrative policy, as announced by the Department of the Army, seemed to stand in the way of the hopes of these valiant men. And then two events occurred which caused me to reappraise my effort to achieve additional burial space. First, jurisdiction over the entire problem of national cemeteries was transferred last year to this committee. Mr. Chairman, this action was heralded by veterans groups around America as signalling the start of a new era of hope for a change in burial policy. This committee, in the minds of veterans' organizations, possesses a sympathy and an empathy with the problems of aging veterans facing the need to select a final resting place. And then, on January 30, the President's message to Congress on veterans' legislation brought a new ray of hope to the picture when, on Page 9, Mr. Johnson stated: "Every veteran who wants it *** those who risked their lives at Belleau Wood, Iwo Jima and the DMZ * ** should have the right to burial in a National Cemetery situated reasonably close to his home ***" Mr. Chairman, these words indicate that the Administration has reversed its field and now sees the pressing need for the creation of additional burial space. Seizing on this new hope, I have introduced my bill, H.R. 15052, requesting consideration of Indiana's Lincoln Country as the logical site of such national cemetery space as might be authorized by the Congress. The reaction has been overwhelming. Veterans groups from all over Indiana have notified me of their support for my bill. While a number of locations in Southern Indiana would have proved eminently suitable for a National Cemetery, Spencer County, located in the heart of Indiana's Lincoln Country, has seemed especially appropriate as a site. It was in this region that the young Lincoln spent his formative years, developing the skills and the heart and the dream with which he was to lead a nation through a terrible war and preserve the Union. Here in Spencer County, the peculiar quality of the land and its people shaped the boy who would become the man. Inspired by the Lincoln tradition, many other young men, over the years, have grown to manhood and have left Indiana for a time to serve their country on a score of battlefields. The Lincoln spirit impressed on their hearts, they have acquitted themselves with high honor and great courage in every war, and many of them serve today in the jungles and hillocks of Vietnam. These young men will return, to join those of middle age and those who are now old-but who, in common with the youngest, have given the best that they had to give, and have, with God's blessing, survived to come home again. Surely, these men and their families have earned the right to burial in this magnificent country that nurtured America's greatest son. Surely, Indiana's veterans can ask this of their Congress with the knowledge that a grateful nation can grant this wish for a final resting place within sight of the hills of home! 92-497-68- -8 Hon. OLIN E. TEAGUE, CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, Chairman, Committee on Veterans' Affairs, Dear Mr. CHAIRMAN: Since the future of the National Cemetery System is now under consideration in the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I would like to make clear my position regarding the jurisdiction and maintenance of the System. Because the National Cemetery System is an important and appropriate way of honoring those men who serve their country, I would urge that Army plans to phase out the System be rejected. The National Cemetery System should be extended and provision should be made to make certain that all veterans have the opportunity to rest in a National Cemetery. In order to ensure that the Cemetery System is maintained, I would further urge that jurisdiction of the National Cemetery System be transferred to the Veterans' Administration. Devoted to the concerns of American veterans, the Veterans' Administration, much more than the Army, is equipped to provide adequate and appropriate direction for the very important National Cemetery System. I would appreciate it if you would consider this letter when the Committee makes its decision regarding the future of the National Cemetery System. With kind regards, I am Sincerely yours, LESTER L. WOLFF, Mr. DORN. If there is nothing further, the committee will be adjourned until the further call of the Chair. (Whereupon, at 11:55 the subcommittee adjourned.) ADMINISTRATION OF CEMETERIES WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1968 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON CEMETERIES AND BURIAL BENEFITS, The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to call, in room 862, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Olin E. Teague (chairman of the subcommittee and of the full committee) presiding. Mr. TEAGUE of Texas. Come to order. Our first witness this morning is Mr. Lee McNitt, former president, National Association of Cemeteries, representing that association and the American Cemetery Association, with Mr. Raymond Brennan, Western Cemetery Alliance. Mr. McNitt, it is good to have you with us. I am sorry there are not more members here. It seems all of us have about four places to be and it is hard to do. at once, STATEMENT OF LEE MCNITT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CEMETERIES AND AMERICAN CEMETERY ASSOCIATION Mr. McNITT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members. Mr. Chairman and members, pursuant to the request of your committee, this statement regarding the policy to be pursued by the Congress concerning cemeterial problems is respectfully submitted by the American Cemetery Association, the National Association of Cemeteries, the Southern Cemetery Association and the Western Cemetery Alliance, which associations are composed of municipal, fraternal, religious, nonprofit community, and other private cemeteries situated throughout the United States and its possessions. We understand a similar statement has been filed with the committee on behalf of the National Catholic Cemetery Conference. We take no position concerning the policy of the Congress in regard to the consolidation of jurisdiction in the Veterans' Administration of those cemeteries, domestic and overseas, presently operated by the Federal Government. We pledge our cooperation in such surveys, studies or hearings that this committee or the committees of succeeding Congresses; or the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs may undertake in the field of cemeterial problems. National cemeterial problems have concerned a succession of Congresses and administrations, being most recently reflected in the message of the President to the Congress on January 30, 1968, and in the |