WASHINGTON – On Wednesday morning, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Congressman Chris Pappas (D-NH) joined with state officials to voice their support for upcoming legislation that would allow National Guard members to be buried in state veterans’ cemeteries.
The legislation set to be introduced later today, titled “the Burial Equity for Guards and Reserves Act of 2020” will allow honorably discharged reservists in the U.S. military, National Guard members or their spouses the option to be interred into state veterans’ cemeteries.
Currently, state veterans’ cemeteries cannot inter reservists and National Guard members without risking U.S Veterans’ Administration funding.
Pappas said he believes the bill will gain bipartisan support based on conversations he’s had with colleagues in the House of Representatives. Shaheen is also optimistic, but is not taking anything for granted, and hopes to let her colleagues in the Senate know the bill represents an opportunity and not a mandate.
“You never know how people are going to respond,” said Shaheen. “I can’t imagine in the end there would be any real opposition, but it’s a process.”
Shawn Buck, Director of the New Hampshire State Veterans’ Cemetery, said that each state would have to address the needs of its own state veterans cemetery differently, but the move would be good for New Hampshire.
Buck said that currently 80 percent of veterans interred in the New Hampshire State Veterans’ Cemetery are cremated and that figure could be adjusted if there ever were concerns over space. However, he also noted that at current rates and capacity, the cemetery would not be full until 2093.
