Apr 14 2011 2:00 PM

Oversight and Investigations: Accountability at Arlington National Cemetery

Rayburn House Office Building - 2118
Thank you, Chairman Wittman, for calling this hearing. 
It is a shame, however, that conditions at Arlington were so bad that we must have this hearing. Problems that never should have occurred have been discovered, and have taken years to correct. There are continuing concerns. We simply must get answers to these questions.
There is probably no more honored, no more sacred, place in America than Arlington Cemetery. That’s where so many of America’s greatest heroes are buried. Arlington, with its row upon row of gravestones, is the magnificent reminder that our precious freedom is not free. It takes the blood and sacrifice of patriots to keep America great. That’s why Arlington is so important to the nation, and why it must be run in an absolutely first-rate fashion.
I hope and pray that, with continued improvements at Arlington, that we will finally be able to lay these troubling issues to rest.

Opening Statement

Panel 1

  • Ms. Kathryn A. Condon
    Executive Director, Army National Cemeteries Program
    Office of the Secretary of the Army
  • Mr. Patrick Hallinan
    Superintendent
    Arlington National Cemetery
  • Colonel William Koch USAF (ret.)
  • Mr. Karl F. Schneider
    Principal Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army
    Manpower and Reserve Affairs