Veterans get burial markers after 35-year ban ends
H.R. 2721 — Honoring Our Heroes Act of 2025 · Filed by Timothy Kennedy (D-NY) · Introduced Apr 8, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The VA can now give headstones, burial markers, or medallions to older veterans. These veterans died since December 7, 1941, and have no marker. A 1990 law had stopped this benefit. The program lasts seven years. The bill also gives people three more months to apply for a pension payment.
Who it affects
Veterans who died long ago and their families can now get a free burial marker. The program is only open for seven years.
One thing to notice
The program ends after seven years unless Congress votes to keep it. The bill does not say how much money will pay for markers.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Apr 8, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Apr 8, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs”
- Jun 24, 2025 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Hearings Held”
- Jul 23, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Jul 23, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported by Voice Vote”
- Sep 15, 2025 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Bost moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
- Sep 16, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required)…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 2 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $310,451 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 170 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Timothy Kennedy, who sponsored the bill, received $573,301 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Disabled American Veterans — $310,451 in 2 reports
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- VA — The Department of Veterans Affairs, the government agency that helps veterans.
- burial marker — A stone or medal placed on a grave to show who is buried there.
- pension — Money the government pays to a person each month.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,230 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,342 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 21, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-18.
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