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| Wilson Seeks Veteren`s Cemetery in Albuquerque |
March 21, 2000 |
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WASHINGTON, DC – In a letter to the Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on VA-HUD and Independent Agencies, James Walsh (R-NY), Congresswoman Heather Wilson urged the subcommittee include language for a new veterans cemetery in Albuquerque in addition to $400,000 to assess sites and do preliminary design work.
“America has long shown its final measure of respect for our veterans of military service by providing burial plots and markers in national cemeteries. In New Mexico, the national cemetery in Santa Fe, which opened in 1868, is expected to be at full capacity as early as 2008. This is troubling to me and many veterans because the only other national cemetery in the state is near Silver City, far from the population center of greater Albuquerque,” said Wilson
The legislative language that Wilson has requested along with the $400,000 is identical to the bill (H.R. 3335) she introduced last November. The legislation requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to submit to Congress a report that sets a schedule for the establishment of a national cemetery in the Albuquerque area. The bill does not specify a location, but Wilson expects land owned by federal, state or local government or by private owners willing to donate the land for a national cemetery to be given higher priority in the site selection process.
There are almost 200,000 veterans currently living in New Mexico. Nationally, 535,000 veterans were buried in national cemeteries in 1996 and internments are expected to grow yearly and peak in 2008 at 620,000.
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