Legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-ME) making more spouses and dependents of veterans eligible for Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) headstone markers when they are interred at tribal veterans cemeteries was approved by the House on Monday.
H.R. 3657, approved on a voice vote, would authorize the VA to provide headstone markers to eligible spouses and dependents at tribal veterans cemeteries. The VA would also be authorized to provide memorial markers for families to place in tribal cemeteries when veterans’ remains are unavailable.
Speaking on the House floor, Poliquin said he was surprised to learn that family members of veterans buried at tribal cemeteries are not treated the same as family members of veterans buried at state and national veterans cemeteries. H.R. 3657 would address the inconsistency.
“Specifically, it would ensure that the family members of veterans who are buried at tribal cemeteries — such as the Maliseet Indian Tribal cemetery in Houlton — are provided with government-furnished headstones, the same treatment as those buried at national and state veterans cemeteries,” Poliquin said.
The Houlton Band of the Maliseet Indians in Houlton, Maine, created the first tribal veterans cemetery on the East Coast, according to Poliquin.
“People who put on the uniform – whether a man or a woman, whoever they are, wherever they live, or whatever cemetery they are buried in – deserve the same respect, the same honor, and the same treatment,” Poliquin said.
U.S. Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN), the chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, thanked Poliquin for introducing the bill and noted the special interest the congressman has in the issue because his district in Maine includes a tribal veterans cemetery.
“There is no reason that veterans and their families who are interred in tribal veterans cemeteries shouldn’t receive the same benefits as those who decide to use national or state veterans cemeteries,” Roe said in remarks on the House floor.
Roe also praised his Democratic colleagues on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee for working in a bipartisan way to recently advance important bills ahead of Veterans Day.