I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2586 
To prohibit the Secretary of Veterans Affairs from authorizing honor guards 
to participate in funerals of veterans interred in national cemeteries 
unless the honor guards may offer veterans’ families the option of having 
the honor guard perform a 13-fold flag recitation, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 21, 2009 
Mr. BROUN of Georgia (for himself, Mr. PETERSON, Mr. WALZ, Mr. CANTOR, 
Mr. BLUNT, Mr. BOREN, Mr. CARTER, Mr. CARNEY, Mr. PRICE of Geor-
gia, Mr. MEEK of Florida, Mr. GINGREY of Georgia, Mr. DAVIS of Ten-
nessee, Mr. AKIN, Ms. FALLIN, Mr. KLINE of Minnesota, Mr. POE of 
Texas, Mr. BRADY of Texas, Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey, Mr. ISSA, Mr. 
KING of Iowa, Mr. LUETKEMEYER, Mr. POSEY, Mrs. LUMMIS, Mr. 
FORBES, Mr. OLSON, Mr. MCHENRY, Mr. GOHMERT, Mr. WILSON of 
South Carolina, Mr. WESTMORELAND, Mr. JORDAN of Ohio, Mr. DEAL 
of Georgia, Mr. WITTMAN, Mr. YOUNG of Alaska, Mr. KINGSTON, Mr. 
MILLER of Florida, Mr. MARCHANT, Mr. HELLER, Mr. ROSKAM, Mr. 
LINDER, Mr. MCCOTTER, Mr. TIBERI, Mr. NUNES, Mr. HUNTER, Mr. 
SHADEGG, and Mr. SAM JOHNSON of Texas) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs 
A BILL 
To prohibit the Secretary of Veterans Affairs from author-
izing honor guards to participate in funerals of veterans 
interred in national cemeteries unless the honor guards 
may offer veterans’ families the option of having the 
honor guard perform a 13-fold flag recitation, and for 
other purposes. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) The National Cemetery Administration of 
the Department of Veterans Affairs (hereinafter re-
ferred to as the ‘‘NCA’’) honors veterans with final 
resting places in national shrines and with lasting 
tributes that commemorate their service to the Na-
tion. 
(2) The NCA currently maintains more than 
2,800,000 grave sites at 125 national cemeteries in 
39 States and Puerto Rico. 
(3) In fiscal year 2006, nearly 97,000 inter-
ments were conducted at national cemeteries. 
(4) In fiscal year 2006, nearly 72 percent of in-
terments were at the Nation’s 20 busiest national 
cemeteries in Riverside, California, Florida, Calver-
ton, New York, Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, Fort 
Snelling, Minnesota, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, 
Fort Logan, Colorado, Willamette, Oregon, Dallas- 
Fort Worth, Texas, National Memorial Cemetery of 
Arizona, Houston, Texas, Fort Rosecrans, Cali-
fornia, Abraham Lincoln, Illinois, Tahoma, Wash-
ington, Massachusetts, San Joaquin Valley, Cali-
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fornia, Long Island, New York, Indiantown Gap, 
Pennsylvania, Ohio Western Reserve, and Great 
Lakes, Michigan. 
(5) Section 1491 of title 10, United States 
Code, requires, upon a family’s request, that every 
eligible veteran receive a military funeral honors 
ceremony, to include folding and presenting the 
United States burial flag and the playing of Taps, 
and the law further stipulates that veterans’ organi-
zations may assist in providing military funeral hon-
ors. 
(6) The folding and presentation of the United 
States flag is a solemn and important moment for 
families of the deceased, and can be done in silence 
or accompanied by a recitation of the 13 steps taken 
to fold the flag and the meaning behind each step. 
(7) Veterans’ service organizations across the 
Nation often provide funeral honors at national 
cemeteries, including the folding and presentation of 
the flag, the recitation of the flag-folding steps and 
the playing of Taps. 
(8) The recitation of the flag-folding steps 
should be proactively offered to the families rather 
than waiting for a request. 
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(9) The choice to have the flag-folding cere-
mony read aloud should rest with the family of the 
deceased, not the NCA. 
SEC. 2. OFFERING OF 13-FOLD FLAG RECITATION AT FU-
NERALS OF VETERANS IN NATIONAL CEME-
TERIES. 
The Secretary of Veterans Affairs may not authorize 
an honor guard to participate in the funeral of any veteran 
interred in a national cemetery under the control of the 
National Cemetery Administration unless the honor guard 
may offer to the family of each veteran in whose funeral 
the honor guard chooses to participate the option of hav-
ing the honor guard perform one of the 13-fold flag recita-
tions. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that 13-fold flag recita-
tions are a historical tradition, and that it should be the 
policy of the Department of Veterans Affairs to authorize 
honor guards to participate in the funerals of veterans and 
proactively offer such a recitation to the family of each 
veteran. 
Æ 
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