Senate passes bill to manage military cemetery
Measure requires Army to report whether Arlington graves are properly marked and to develop plans to fix errors.
The Senate passed a bill on Saturday giving the Army control of the graves at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The bill was proposed after officials found improperly marked and mismarked graves at the cemetery.
The bill requires the Army to report whether the graves are properly marked and to develop plans to fix errors. Under the bill, the secretary of the Army must report to Congress on the progress in reforming management of the burial grounds.
A criminal investigation by the Army found eight sets of cremated remains in one burial plot with a headstone marked "unknown." The investigation also found more than 200 plots that were mislabeled on the cemetery map.
The bill was cosponsored by Sens. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Scott Brown, R-Mass.; Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Richard Burr, R-N.C.