H.R. 2078 — Bertie’s Respect for National Cemeteries Act

This section modifies the notice requirement in 38 U.S.C. 2411(a)(2) by requiring the appropriate federal official to take every reasonable action, including searching public records, to ensure a person proposed for interment or memorialization in a National Cemetery Administration cemetery or Arlington National Cemetery is not ineligible under that section. (Previously, for persons convicted of federal or state capital crimes or qualifying tier III sex offenders sentenced to life imprisonment or 99 years or more, the prohibition applied only upon receipt of written notice of conviction prior to interment or memorialization.) As background, 38 U.S.C. 2411 prohibits interment or memorialization of such persons (whose convictions are final and not commuted) or those found to have committed capital crimes but not convicted due to death or flight. This section also amends the disinterment authority in section 2(c) of the Alicia Dawn Koehl Respect for National Cemeteries Act (38 U.S.C. 2411 note) to specify its applicability to interments or memorializations in those cemeteries conducted on or after the date of enactment of 38 U.S.C. 2411 and this amendment.

This section directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to disinter the remains of George E. Siple from Indiantown Gap National Cemetery, notify his next-of-kin of record of the impending disinterment, and upon disinterment relinquish the remains to the next-of-kin or arrange for appropriate disposition if the next-of-kin is unavailable.