National Cemetery Access Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The National Cemetery Access Act is a visitor-access bill for federal national cemeteries. Its substantive section requires every national cemetery administered by the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or the National Park Service to be open to visitors on the legal public holidays listed in 5 U.S.C. 6103(a). Those holidays include days such as Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and other federal holidays. The bill does not create a new memorial program or burial benefit; it turns holiday public access into a statutory requirement across the three federal cemetery systems named in the text.
Who Benefits and How
Families of buried service members and veterans benefit because they receive guaranteed holiday access to national cemeteries for visits, remembrance, and ceremonies. Veterans organizations and memorial groups benefit because cemetery access on legal public holidays supports commemorative events and public observances. Visitors to Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, and National Park Service cemeteries benefit from a uniform access rule rather than agency-by-agency holiday closures.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Department of Veterans Affairs cemetery administrators must keep covered national cemeteries open on federal legal public holidays. Department of Defense cemetery managers must provide holiday visitor access at covered military cemetery sites. National Park Service cemetery staff must maintain public access, security, staffing, and visitor operations on covered holidays. Federal taxpayers may bear added operating costs for holiday staffing, security, maintenance, and visitor services.
Key Provisions
- Requires national cemeteries administered by Defense, Veterans Affairs, or the National Park Service to be open to visitors on federal legal public holidays.
- Applies the holiday-access requirement to the public holidays listed in 5 U.S.C. 6103(a).
- Creates a uniform visitor-access rule across the covered federal cemetery systems.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires national cemeteries administered by the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, or National Park Service to be open to visitors on federal legal public holidays.
Key Policy Areas
Veterans, Cemeteries, Federal Facilities
Primary Purpose
Requires national cemeteries administered by the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, or National Park Service to be open to visitors on federal legal public holidays.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Families of buried veterans
- Veterans organizations
- Visitors to VA national cemeteries
- Visitors to Defense national cemeteries
- Visitors to National Park Service cemeteries
Identified Costs
- Department of Veterans Affairs cemetery administrators
- Department of Defense cemetery managers
- National Park Service cemetery staff
- Federal taxpayers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance and Memorial Affairs.
Mr. Downing (for himself, Mr. Steube, Mr. Barrett, Mr. Moore …
Referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and in addition …
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Department of Defense (cemetery operations), Department of Veterans Affairs (cemetery operations), National Park Service (cemetery operations)
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology